The Whisky industry was having trouble shaking off a musty, old man image and wanted to rebrand younger and attract females too.
Whisky or Whiskey if you're of an Irish or American persuasion, was losing market share to vodka in particular but also the craft beer and wine markets. They had an old, stuffy image, people had the perception that you had to be an expert to get involved.
We wanted to open up whisky to novices and the curious using the power of music.
To rebrand whisky younger, attract females and make whisky cool again. We wanted to create an event which was unthreatening and helped complete novices gain an understanding of the different whiskies out there, without sounding pompous and over bearing.
PURE music and whisky festival. The inaugural Pure Festival took place at The Garage, Highbury and Islington over the weekend of Sept 24/25/2011. Sold out on both days, Pure hosted 30 different Single Malts and Blends plus 16 amazing bands.
PURE was nominated for best new festival at the festival awards. 90% of the attendees were under 35 and 50% were female.
"Pure is an exciting addition to the whisky calendar and in its first year was a huge success. It was a delight sharing whisky with hundreds of enthusiastic, whisky novices, against a backdrop of some of the finest independent music on offer. This is where whisky should be - a powerful and uplifting experience." Dominic Roscrow, Whisky Tasting Club.
Whisky was cool again, PURE helped start the image rebranding.