Whiskey Chats Podcast: My Snug Chat with Jim Arnoldt at Belfast Whiskey Week 2025

"Join me for My Snug Chat with Jim Arnoldt. I met up with Jim at Belfast Whiskey Week 2025 in the popular food market, the Common Market, at the Cocktail Takeover event. We sat outside the packed event, on the roadside tables and I had a ball chatting to Jim."

The Common Market Cocktail Takeover is one of the festival's most distinctive events — a single venue with multiple bars, each presenting a featured whiskey cocktail for the night. It's busy, loud, and exactly the kind of atmosphere that captures Belfast Whiskey Week's commitment to making whiskey approachable, fun and social.

What makes Whiskey Chats valuable as festival coverage is the format. Laurie doesn't do polished pre-produced episodes — he records conversations in the actual venues, with the actual atmosphere of the festival audible in the background. The result is an audio document of what the festival sounds like, not just what's on the programme.

This is the third Whiskey Chats episode recorded at or around Belfast Whiskey Week 2025. Earlier in the festival week, Laurie recorded with Damien, head distiller at Titanic Distillers, walking around the historic pumphouse at Thompson Dock. He also visited Copeland Distillery on the Ards Peninsula with Gareth Irvine during the festival visit.

Across all three episodes, Whiskey Chats has built what is effectively an audio archive of Belfast Whiskey Week 2025 — captured by an outside observer with deep affection for the festival and a podcasting style that captures real atmosphere rather than constructed narrative.

Laurie O'Dwyer also founded Cork Whiskey Fest, which sits alongside Belfast Whiskey Week in the small but growing Irish whiskey festival calendar. The crossover between the two festivals — and the way Laurie's podcast covers both — has helped build a sense of shared community across the Irish whiskey scene.

Listen to the full episode: Whiskey Chats — My Snug Chat with Jim Arnoldt