By Stefanie Collins, editor b&c
Taking place on 11 June for 2016, World Gin Day is a pretty big deal – and the perfect opportunity for venues to get in on the well-established gin obsession in Australia.
Founded by Neil Houston, aka YetAnotherGin, in 2009, what started off as a day to bring his friends together to drink gin has grown into a global celebration. In 2013 Emma Stokes, aka Gin Monkey, took the reins, building it up with 2015 becoming rather a big deal.
A “big deal” translates to: #worldginday trending on twitter with a total reach of 47,248,415. On average 23.4 tweets a minutes included #worldginday over the course of the week, peaking on Saturday. There was also 37,026 visitors to the website (15,449 on the day), 88,663 page views on the website (35,447 on the day).
The concept is simple: get people enjoying gin together all over the world.
This year, Caroline Childerley, aka The Gin Queen, has been appointed Australian Ambassador for World Gin Day and will be responsible for promoting the day countrywide and making sure all the Australian events get listed on the designated World Gin Day website (www.worldginday.com).
Brands and bars are invited to send all information regarding their events, competitions and “shenana-gins” to Chillderley as soon as possible.
If you need some inspiration, Gin Palace in Melbourne is going all out as per usual. Think:
- A Joost Bakker created, gin-inspired forest featuring gin botanicals
- Opening the doors at midday with buy one-get-one free Martinis, Negronis, and G&Ts until 10pm
- A gold bathtub with gin being ladled out by costumed staff
- Martinis and massages in the Harem
- A gin inspired Let Them Eat Cake table with cakes, biscuits, cupcakes and more
- An “Old Tom” dispenser
- The West Winds Three Martini Lunch degustation in the Swamp Room
- Four Pillars Masterclass slash high tea
- All the staff will be dressed to the nines and anyone who wears a French cuff will be given a pair of Gin Palace cufflinks (until they run out).