If there’s one thing that still thrives in Aberdeen in this often rocky economic climate, it’s the food and drinks industry. Dining out and socialising seem to rank pretty highly on the average Aberdonian’s list of ‘what I do in my spare time’ activities, and who can blame us with so many fantastic venues right on our doorstep? But answer me this… how many of you are guilty of frequenting the same old haunts time and time again out of habit, or knowing that you can rely on them for a good night? How many of us sit at the same table sharing the same old bottle of pinot week in, week out? Having somewhere familiar or a local that you feel comfortable in is great and all, and who doesn’t love walking in to a bar and having the bartender appear with your favourite tipple and a knowing smile before you’ve even taken your coat off, but are we overlooking some amazing places just a stones throw away, that could well become your new favourite hangout?

Enter Aberdeen Inspired, the driving force behind projects such as the Nuart festival and the Christmas village. In my experience, the natives will always be the first to grumble about how ‘nothing ever happens round here’, but are we just complaining blindly without opening our eyes to some of the amazing things happening all around us? They don’t call us ‘Abermoanians’ for nothing. Aberdeen Inspired are on a mission to make the most of our beautiful city and help us to truly appreciate what a great place we live in.

This week I went along to the media launch for their latest project aimed at getting us off of our sofas an on to those cobbled streets, Aberdeen Inspired nights.

Rye and Soda graciously hosted the event where local press, business owners and bloggers were invited to mingle and find out exactly what will be going on over the ten day festival.

For anyone that took advantage of restaurant week back in February, this is the next installment in the form of a night time extravaganza involving local venues who will be serving up a host of fine wines, temping cocktails and delicious dining opportunities for the night time revellers of Aberdeen to enjoy. Here’s what Inspired nights have to say about the event…

ABOUT INSPIRED NIGHTS

Welcome to Aberdeen Inspired Nights!

A 10-day food, drink and cocktail festival celebrating night-time culture in the silver city. This year we will be bringing together some of the most well-known and up-and-coming bars, restaurants and brands from the North East, Scotland and beyond.

Get your Inspired Nights festival wristband today and enjoy £5 cocktails, 20% off food and other fantastic, exclusive discounts from across the city.

Explore the city, experience the nightlife like never before and find new things to do in Aberdeen at night. Inspired Nights will be hosting exclusive offers on food, drink and tickets to events like tastings, pairings, brand parties and master classes hosted by a variety of the city centre’s best nightspots.

These wristbands are set to be the hottest accessory that no cocktail loving socialite will be seen without this May..

The event will be kicking off on Friday the 18th of may with a night market in the heart of the city, down on The Green. You’ll be able to enjoy street food from local vendors such such as the irisistible Melt, and don’t miss out on the Hard Grind X 10 Dollar shake pop up bar, where bartending and barbering will have a glorious meeting.

Check out full details of the night market here https://aberdeeninspirednights.com/night-market.

I’m not going to go in too much detail on the rest of the goings on across the festival, get out there and find out for yourself! Do we really need any more of an excuse not only to go out and enjoy some fabulous food and drinks at great prices, but also to support our local businesses? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we need to SHOP LOCAL, whether that be in retail or in the food and drinks industry, we need to keep our city’s heart pumping.

Over the festival I’ll be going out and compiling a list of my favourite hotspots, and maybe finding some new ones to report back to you, and I encourage you to do the same. We may live in the Granite city, but if we look hard enough it’s easy to see how vibrant and colourful it can really be.

Go out and enjoy a cocktail, maybe enjoy a few, I know I will..

B x