Oban’s Winter Festival is ready for well-earned hibernation after ten days of sparkle and fun lighting up the town.
Festival organisers and supporters pulled off yet another success, drawing in visitors from near and far who headed into Oban as a warm-up for the start of the Christmas season’s festivities.
Organisers said Oban was as busy as in the summer season, with people filling the streets.
“It was fabulous. The town looked like it does on a summer day with visitors when you looked down the streets. It proves the festival is a crowd-puller. It was noticeable at the Winter Woods that lots of people had come from out of town especially to see it. It was just amazing. Late-night shopping was busy, so that was also good to hear. Everyone enjoyed themselves – that’s always the main thing. It was hard work for the volunteers and supporters but it paid off,” said one of the organisers.
One of the last events in the packed programme was the Haggis and Whisky Festival on Sunday at Oban Distillery with Oban High School Pipe Band taking part.
Visitors queued to get into the judging room at Oban Distillery to get tasters and vote for their best haggis.
Judges were Masterchef UK’s William Rocks from Seil’s Tigh An Truish and the Olive Garden’s Colin Felgate, with Douglas Scott, who had the task of giving their professional verdicts on who would win.
Once the votes were in, the top haggis makers were revealed with the People’s Choice award going to Jason Rendall from Rendalls Online Butchers in Stirling and the Golden Haggis Award being presented to Sean Gibson from Dale Traditional Butchers, Kirby, Lonsdale in Cumbria.
Sean, who has been making haggis for about 15 years, says he will be back to defend his title next year.
“I’ve taken the Golden Haggis Award out of Scotland, that’s quite a claim to fame! I tasted all of the competition entries and enjoyed everyone of them. They were all a bit different. We came in 2019 and finished runner-up. We’ll definitely be back in 2024 to see if we can hold on to the title.
“I had a great weekend in Oban, everyone was very friendly. It was well worth the trip. We do well with our haggis down here but we’ve definitely sold a few more than usual on the back of our win in Oban.”