Gin Festival due to visit Portsmouth is holding a huge auction

Gin Festival Limited was due to make its fourth outing to Guildhall Square but entered administration earlier this year. 

The Keighley-based company went into administration last month after attempts to find a buyer for the struggling company failed.

Twenty major gin festivals that were scheduled to take place in the next few months have been cancelled including events in Sheffield, Wakefield, Lincoln, Leicester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Worcester, Oxford, Norwich, Edinburgh, and Portsmouth, leaving the buyers of 20,000 advance tickets out of pocket.

They've been advised to contact Paypal or their credit or debit card providers to check if they are covered for their loss.

1,200 bottles of craft gin will be auctioned off with no reserve. 

And auction house Eddisons CJM are urging people to grab a bargain. 

Paul Cooper, the company's director, said: '˜The Gin Festival premises in West Yorkshire have had to be cleared, which is why the remaining assets have been moved to our Auction Centre in Scunthorpe for the online sale next Monday (August 13th).

'˜The auction will see over 1,200 bottles of craft gin going under the hammer, some of which sold for more than £40 a bottle. We calculate the total retail value to be in excess of £50,000 . . . and I imagine considerably more than that at festival prices.

'˜We have divided most of the gins into practical lots of two to six bottles so that members of the public can get involved in the bidding as well as trade buyers.

'˜Everything in the auction is being sold without reserve, so it will make what it makes.' 

Mr. Cooper added: '˜We're also auctioning huge quantities of mixers. We reckon we have something over seven thousand bottles of those and they are obviously being sold in larger quantities.

'˜We have also been instructed to dispose of all the festival furnishings and equipment that the company used to stage events around the country.

'˜That ranges across everything from optics boards, travelling bars and bar equipment, through sound system kit and event fencing, to pallet trucks and the large flight cases that were used for transportation. We've even got their '˜selfie stand' and camera.

'˜Whilst it is not as headline-grabbing as the gin, the equipment lots are actually the most valuable in the auction and are expected to raise a considerable part of the final total.' 

The auction extends to over 350 lots.

The full catalogue is available on the Internet on Eddison CJM's website 

The online sale using the BidSpotter platform (www.bidspotter.co.uk) closes at 6pm tonight '“ so act quick.