A warm welcome to 2015, which rather excitingly is Scotland’s Year of Food & Drink.
Richard Lochhead at the Campaign’s launch
I was along at the launch of Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, a couple of months ago. It set the scene for the type of events and topics that we could likely expect at a time when 2015 still felt a little way away.
With January now upon us, we have moved from the theoretical and speculative to the first month of this major year-long partnership initiative between the food and tourism industries, focussed on promoting Scottish produce to a wider audience.
Often, these types of things are squarely pitched at export markets, the luxury traveller, or big business, but there’s definitely an opportunity and willingness to make this more of a grassroots initiative.
There’s a welcome return for the monthly #scotfood Twitter chats. These provide an excellent informal opportunity for the online exchange of useful nuggets. This year they’ll be loosely based around the monthly themes that have been identified as structure points for the year’s events.
January’s theme is traditional foods, so we can look forward to contributing thoughts to the conversation about perennial favourites.
Check out the full list of monthly topics.
I look forward to contributing to a busy programme of events throughout the year. I already have plans to align some of the Scran Salon events with the monthly topics and have an idea in the pipeline in relation to June’s theme, which relates to the Future of Food.
What will you do to play your part?
Find out more
The Year of Food and Drink is a Scottish Government initiative led by EventScotland and VisitScotland that will capitalise on the momentum created by the previous Year of Food and Drink in 2010 and Homecoming Scotland 2014. It is a chance to spotlight, celebrate and promote Scotland’s larder and produce to those living in Scotland and visitors to Scotland
Potential applicants for event funding are advised to contact EventScotland to discuss their applications in advance of submitting an application form.
A range of resources are available to help you use local produce at your event, improve your online presence, and be part of the Year of Food and Drink.
Find out more and download application forms (to be submitted before February 2015)
