Aberlour, Scotland  - The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival in north-east Scotland is marking its 10th anniversary this year with an expanded programme, Ros Lewis, the festival's coordinator, said in Aberlour.

She noted that the festival, from May 1-10, would be twice as long as usual. Its approximately 350 whisky-inspired events will range from whisky workshops and art exhibitions to cooking shows with the theme "whisky and food."

Among the participants will be 35 distilleries in Speyside, a region between Inverness and Aberdeen that is considered Scotland's "malt whisky country."

The programme includes 180 whisky tours and tastings. Whisky connoisseurs can look forward to "vertical tastings" comparing malt whiskys from the decades between the 1940s and the present.

There will also be visits to distilleries seldom open the public, for example Benrinnes and Mortlach, Lewis said.

A further attraction will be tours reliving the trails of whisky smugglers who, in earlier centuries, brought the coveted national drink out of the Scottish Highlands to places where its distillation was more difficult. Lewis said there would be ceilidhs, too: traditional Scottish parties with Scotch whisky, dancing and Gaelic music. (dpa)