Like many things in life, the key to having a good time lies in careful planning.

So, if you like beer, or gin, or cocktails, or live music, or street food, then you should really get your diary out and make a note of next month’s North Hop festival.

Taking place at the Eden Theatre in Inverness on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd of August, this is the second time the festival has run.

North Hop 2014 was so successful that, in addition to August’s shindig, they put on another festival in Aberdeen in April this year and it sold out in two weeks.

Craft beer festival

The original festival came into being after the organiser realised that, unlike pretty much every other UK city, Inverness had no large scale craft beer festival.

This sorry state of affairs held true despite the fact that the Highlands and North East has some splendid craft breweries.

Happily, this terrible situation has now been remedied.

Visitors to the Inverness bash can look forward to craft beer and food pairing events, gin tastings and pop-up cocktail lounges.

The festival will see the return of the outdoor themed Beer Hall filled with beer, cider and live music acts on the Hop Stage, as well as meet the brewer sessions and some fun food and drink demonstrations.

Cocktails

The cosmopolitan vibe and outdoor terrace of the Cocktail Lounge will also return to serve up some of Scotland’s finest artisan gins, fizz, creative cocktails and DJ’s on the Botanical Stage.

Look out for two further festivals which are currently in the planning stages: North Hop Shetland and North Hop St Andrews.

North Hop Inverness runs the following sessions:

Friday evening session: 21st August 2015, 6pm-midnight.

Saturday daytime session: 22nd August 2015, noon-6pm.

Saturday evening session: 22nd August 2015, 7pm-1am.

Ticket info here.