Birmingham’s whisky festival scene has three major players and over the next six months we’ll be covering all of them: Midlands Whisky Festival, English Whisky Festival and Whisky Birmingham.

The first contender getting the All But Drams assessment is Midlands Whisky Festival, organised by Nickolls & Perks, a company that has been in the whisky game longer than anyone reading this has been alive. The show itself is a long-running event too, now in its 20th iteration and I believe second only to Whisky Live in terms of age.

All this history makes for a well oiled show. Midlands Whisky Festival has some of the best pre-show marketing and consumer information I’ve seen. A regularly updated exhibitor list and website, a dram list published days in advance and even a shop price list! If you are someone who rigorously plans your festival trips the Midlands organisers have got you covered far more than a lot of the competition.

The organisation is evident when you arrive at the show too. This year I turned up 20 minutes before the show and the queue was 30-40 people long. The team travels down the queue checking tickets in advance so I had my first dram in hand three minutes after opening with no faffing about. I’d suggest joining the queue around 40 minutes in advance if you want to be one of the first through the door or are looking for something rare from the shop.

Once inside, however, one of the show’s few flaws becomes apparent. The show has been in TheStudio since 2016 and has clearly grown to fill it entirely. The downstairs area with the bigger brands is hot and the upstairs area with the smaller exhibitors is loud with you having to shout sometimes to be heard. BarrelRollX on YouTube posted his summary of the event with walkthroughs of the space at opening and later on in the day so you can see how quickly it fills up.

The other issue is the chokepoints in corridors and doorways where people linger to chat or take a break. The popular Nickolls & Perks shop and show stand is in one corner leading to a bunched up space there that spills outward. Other consumers share this sentiment with me, the venue isn’t bad at all but it’s clearly getting cramped and broken up over so many smaller spaces. Demand is high for the show too with Saturday tickets selling out months in advance, so perhaps a move will be on the cards in future?

In terms of the stands, exhibitors are able to bring just their bottles or whatever additional flair they want. There’s no superstands like you’ll see at The Whisky Exchange Show or Whisky Live Paris but flair is added by the brand teams. Lindores for instance had fun stand decorations based off of their Abbey home. Whilst the corridors fill up the actual stand spacing is fine. It was rare for a stand to get so overcrowded that you couldn’t get to the one next door, only in the first hour where certain exhibitors were “must see” for the enthusiasts were there any real issues. All the brand ambassadors and distillery staff I spoke to were welcoming and enthusiastic. I saw plenty of friendly handholding of beginners alongside all the enthusiast chatter too. 

The drams are why we’re here, and the list is impressive. We are looking at 380 on the dram list and well over over 400 at the show given the numerous stands that had more on the counter than their listings. A quick breakdown of the dram list looks like this: 68% Scotch, 23% whisky from everywhere else, and a 9% sliver of rum. For Scotch purists, welcome, this place will give you two days of incredible drams from distillers and independent bottlers! If your region of choice is the USA, Ireland or anywhere else you’ll only get a couple of stands. Which exhibitors do and don’t pay to attend is not something festivals control but because Midlands Whisky Festival sells out in advance anyone not excited by Scottish single malts will have to take an early gamble or use the show to push their boundaries.

The big new hook for 2024 is the prime example of how a whisky show can push the boundaries of its attendees and attract new ones: The Rum Room. This space saw major brands Foursquare, El Dorado and Diplomatico bring their full ranges alongside Scotland’s Ninefold and England’s Scratch. As a mini expo in itself it represented real quality and range with options from affordable white rums for cocktails through to some indulgent premium tots. As passionate rum fans we are always shouting that more whisky drinkers should try rums and it’s festivals like this that will convert them. By adding a single spirit with a similar profile to whisky, and building a space for it within the festival, Nickolls & Perks made the rum feel integrated rather than an afterthought.

Midlands Whisky Festival offers Dream Drams with the same system as The Whisky Exchange’s events. You get a token included in your ticket and can buy more for £10 each. Our number one tip with these Midlands Whisky Festival Dream Drams and the many “not quite Dream Drams” is: make a plan! Things can and will run out. This year Laphroaig 30 went in the morning and all the Octomore was gone by mid afternoon. Both the Buffalo Trace standard Weller products and the Antique Collection Dream Drams were gone by mid afternoon too. 

Whilst shop pricing doesn’t factor into our review of events the service and selection does if we make a purchase. The good news is the Nickolls & Perks festival shop has some very interesting stock and a £5 discount coupon for when you spend over £50. Previous years see rare things like RRP Weller bourbon for instance. However, this good stock is known and those rare things will be snapped up in the first 5 minutes. Even some less obvious things like a Strathclyde single grain from James Eadie I really enjoyed went out of stock in the first few hours. Having good bottles at fair prices is a compliment to the show, but here’s a warning to enthusiasts to arrive early if there’s something specific you’re after.

The Midlands Whisky festival is a rock solid show with a great range but is it worth the price? Mostly yes. I paid £68.70 including fees which is £15 more than Whisky Birmingham but below that of smaller London events like Whisky Live. The drams you get access to for the money make it a good value proposition. However, the show is an hour shorter than last year and still the same price. Whilst fewer hours are better for the sanity of brand ambassadors and the livers of attendees it does present, on paper, a reduction in value. Even rushing through some stands I failed to see all the brands I wanted to this year. I would prefer Midlands Whisky Festival either charge more if they needed to due to costs rising or follow other shows and reducing their timings to shorter sessions. This method gets more folks through the door for the brands and means potentially offering a much cheaper “taster” ticket.

If you’re a beginner looking to start your journey and you’re comfortable with the price then Midlands Whisky festival is a no brainer. Yes there’s lots of niche enthusiast products here but there’s also plenty of incredible budget buys and lots of experienced exhibitors who will be happy to show you the ropes. For enthusiasts the recommendation starts getting caveats. If London is the closest city to you then you would be just as well served by the many events there as you would be by Midlands Whisky Festival. For local enthusiasts there’s another question. How does this stack up to the other major shows in the city: Whisky Birmingham or the English Whisky Festival? The good news is All But Drams will be attending both of these and delivering our definitive answer to that in March next year.