The Gourmet Boys: Belfast Whiskey Week 19–27 July 2024

The piece runs through the 2024 launch event and the festival's expanded sponsor and partner network. ABL Group, Northern Ireland's leading commercial insurance broker, returned as main festival sponsor — part of the global Brown & Brown Insurance team. Their continued involvement signals something important about how the festival is now understood by serious business partners: as a marker for Belfast's hospitality and cultural calendar.

The collaborator list for 2024 was the festival's widest yet — Belfast Whiskey Club, Echlinville Distillery, Commercial Court Inns Ltd (Duke of York and The Friend at Hand), McConnell's Distillery, Belfast Walking Tours, Irish Whiskey Review, Belfast Hidden Tours, Chocolate Manor, Oh Donuts, Daisies, Mamo Patisserie, and Taste & Tour. Participating venues stretched across the city: The Duke of York, Dark Horse, Friend at Hand, The Deer's Head, Urban Scullery, Tribal, Maddens, Hearth, Trade Market, Holohan's Pantry, Morning Star, Stereo, Neighbourhood Café, Daisies, the Garrick, John Hewitt and Roam.

The Gourmet Boys captured photography from the festival launch — Sarah Kennedy of McConnell's Irish Whisky, Joe Magowan of Irish Distillers, Mary McKillop of Glens of Antrim Distillery, Conor Owens of Belfast Hidden Tours, Annie Bethell of Angels' Share, and Shauna Graham of ABL Group main festival sponsor all featured in the launch coverage.

What's striking is how each year's coverage from The Gourmet Boys reads as a kind of running archive of the festival's growth. Compare the 2024 partner list to the 2025 list and you can see the pattern — same core, but more brands, more venues, more food and drink collaborators each time. The festival has scaled in a way that hasn't lost the people who started it.

The 2024 programme included whiskey tastings, cocktail events, theatrical experiences, distillery tours, sensory and fine dining experiences, exclusive dining and drink collaborations with Belfast bars and restaurants, heritage walking tours and food pairing sessions.

Read the full preview: The Gourmet Boys — Belfast Whiskey Week 19 - 27 July 2024