The last part of our #tripleAscot break saw us heading to Aviemore, for destination festival NorthHopAvi! The previous festival had only been held in February so we were really looking forward to a second helping of festivities at the MacDonald Aviemore resort. As per usual the venue looked fantastic, with nothing left unconsidered, the space was functional with loads of seating to perch on, as well as looking pretty darn cool with attention to detail throughout!
Once we collected our glass and programme, and exchanged our tokens for a complimentary half pint of the festival brew or cider (I went for the Thistly Cross Farmhouse cider – it’s last outing) we settled down for some music and chat.
We chatted to some other festival goers who had travelled over from Aberdeen and compared notes on our chosen eats and drinks whilst enjoying the music throughout both sessions. My personal favourite were Footerin’ Aboot who didn’t fail to get the crowd up dancing, especially when they played a cover or two!
Over the course of the two sessions we attended, we sampled from the street food on offer. Mr B barely got a look in (as did my camera as I couldn’t get a decent photo!) of my halloumi fries from Chick + Pea, and in the evening session I went full on veggie for a huge bowl of aubergine dahl and coconut rice from the Bowl Food van.
There weren’t just items to enjoy on site – at many of the stalls you could take home gift packs of beers, rum and gin – I couldn’t resist finally adding the Isle of Harris gin and sugar kelp water to my collection, and some chocolate dipped mango and pineapple slices from Caithness Chocolate.
At the evening session we saw lots of people making use of the photo booth props to create their own hilarious North Hop memories with the northhopAVI hashtag – the sombrero was definitely a popular prop!
Towards the end of the night I visited the Inshriach Gin bar for a taste of the Gin-jito – at the February festival the inaugural bottling had just taken place so it was great to see Walter and the gang more established, and with even more new experimental flavours to try in the shape of their rowan and bog myrtle liquer!
It was another great festival and *sad face* the last ‘main’ North Hop festival in Aviemore for the foreseeable future! Festival Director Michelle will be taking North Hop to Aberdeen for one last huge hurrah for the Easter weekend (30+31) March 2018, so don’t delay, book your tickets to see North Hop out in style!
I wrote this post as the North Hop Highland Brand Ambassador, however all opinions are my own and as usual, North Hop was a great success so there was nothing negative to highlight!
Leave a Reply