The great gin gathering that is Junipalooza returned for its 5th year last week. Back at Tobacco Dock over the World Gin Day weekend, it gave gin fans the opportunity to taste gins from all around the world and meet the people behind them.

With more gins than ever before reflecting the continued growth the industry, this year even featured a ‘Newcomers Zone’ for emerging distilleries from as far away as Kenya and the Himalayas. Only a small percentage of the distillers who were at last year’s event were also there this year, so even repeat visitors like myself were spoilt for choice.

My highlights of the festival included Caspyn from Cornwall, New Zealand newcomers Dancing Sands, the seasonal creations from manx gin Fynoderee, rapidly growing Finnish distillery Kyrö, and Gwyr who’d only been producing their beautiful Welsh gin for 8 months. I was also really impressed by Renegade Gin, despite not liking their branding and it sounding a little like an energy drink! The team on their stand were passionate and very engaging (they also made a mean southside cocktail).

Junipalooza is all about the people behind the gins and incredible stories they have to share.

The big focus of this year’s event was ‘experience’ and while I didn’t make it to any of this year’s experience-based sessions I’d heard great things about the live distillation by Warner Edwards. But as our tickets only lasted for a few hours, and with more than 60 distillers to meet with over 200 gins between them, it was hard to make the time for it.

It was great to spot so many familiar faces from the gin community and catch up with people I’d been tweeting for months in real life.

One of the slight issues I had with last year’s Junipalooza was the lacklustre food selection. The food this year was definitely a step in the right direction, but was still limited choice, and tricky for those with dietary requirements. Thankfully we’d decided to go via the nearby Turk’s Head in Wapping to stock up at breakfast.

It always feels like the event is very much in the spirit of the distillers, it’s not a corporate event all about marketing, but something more personal and authentic.

Junipalooza is always an absolute highlight in the calendar; I already can’t wait for next year!

The festival heads to Hamburg next in September, and then on to Melbourne in October.