LoveBelfast covers Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

"Belfast Whiskey Week, occurring from July 19-27, is an initiative by Belfast Whiskey Club enthusiasts to highlight the city's rich whiskey heritage. Festival director Paul Kane expressed pride in announcing the sixth edition of Ireland's largest whiskey festival."

The piece highlights the festival's reach across more than 300 years of Belfast's distilling history and its programming approach — engaging both whiskey aficionados and newcomers across nine days. The 2024 venue list spans many of Belfast's most beloved heritage pubs and newer venues: the Duke of York, The Deer's Head, Dark Horse, Maddens, the Morning Star and more.

Particular focus goes to the Irish Whiskey Industry Awards 2024, presented at the Belfast Whiskey Week dinner in the historic Great Hall at Queen's University. LoveBelfast describes the awards as "the Second Most Important Awards for the Irish Whiskey Industry as a Whole" — a marker of how the festival's awards have grown in stature over a short time.

"It is a great privilege to host these Awards, solely dedicated to ensuring those Individuals and Businesses within the industry are recognised and rewarded for their dedication, specialisms, contribution and excellence within the Irish Whiskey Industry."

The IWIAs set the categories and accept industry nominations from across Ireland. The combination of Belfast Whiskey Week as the festival platform and the awards as the closing ceremony has created something distinctive — a single annual moment when the Irish whiskey industry gathers publicly to recognise itself, in the city that helped shape Irish whiskey's history.

LoveBelfast's coverage of the festival has been one of its most consistent media relationships. The 2024 piece is part of a multi-year arc of coverage that culminated in LoveBelfast's appointment as official media partner for the 2025 edition — a relationship built over years of mutual trust and shared audience.

Read the full coverage: LoveBelfast — Belfast Whiskey Week 2024