Gingling with London theatre bloggers

Mid-May I received an email from Rebecca, editor of OfficialTheatre.com, with the question if I would be interested in a meet-up with fellow theatre bloggers. My first thought was "Yes, please!", quickly followed by "How did she find my blog?!?" Rebecca's mad blog-searching skills aside, I thought it was a brilliant idea to bring together the bloggers and reviewers of the London theatre scene. And when the official "Ginvite" came through closer to the meet-up on June 2, detailing not only a fun evening of theatre chat at London cocktail bar Central and Co but also a gin-tasting session with Martin Miller's Gin, I was definitely sold. (Yes, you can basically ply me with the promise of alcohol.)

The evening was everything I could've hoped for and then some. Rebecca was incredibly lovely and a fantastic host, not to mention that she had some great ideas to unite the blogging community and spread the theatre love. Attendees varied from people running little-known blogs like my own to more established theatre sites such as The Public Reviews, Views From the Gods and West End Wilma. It was a really nice mixture and I enjoyed getting the chance to gingle with so many different people who, at the end of the day, were all just as passionate about theatre as I am.

There was also a cocktail making session and as soon as Rebecca said that we'd be naming the drinks ourselves I thought of the "Ginterval", as that would nicely fit with the theatrical theme of the night. Our team eventually settled on "Let the Right One Gin", which we all felt to be superior, so imagine my surprise when another team came up with the Ginterval... and won! I'm not a sour loser (ahum) but just as an aside, our delectable concoction was the only one completely finished after the judges had a taste of all the entries ;)

Alcohol makes the stomach growl, so I got very excited when big platters of food arrived for us to tuck into; pieces of rustic bread with olives and soft butter, gooey cheeses with oat cakes, grapes and onion chutney - yum! It was a gin-tastic evening combining pretty much all of my favourite things (theatre, cheese, alcohol, blogging and did I mention cheese?) and I cannot thank Rebecca enough for the Ginvite and for making it such a successful night.

If you want to follow what us London theatre bloggers get up to besides drinking gin and eating cheese, check the #LDNtheatrebloggers tag on Twitter.


Let The Right One Win, eh... Gin!