With just a week to go before the new Licensing Act goes live, licensees are looking for ways to celebrate the historic ending of the old regime.
JO de MILLE reports
As the second appointed day draws nearer, licensees across the country are showing their creative sides as they prepare for a night to remember with their customers.
From beach parties to beer festivals, glitz and glamour nights to circuses, the pub really will be the place to be next Thursday night. Many licensees have chosen to make a weekend of it, with a number of different events planned.
Customers are said to be so excited about the celebrations, that hundreds have already booked time off work. And - as we'll show over the next two pages - if you haven't planned anything yet, there are plenty of options
to make it a night to remember.Opening night celebrations
Church House Inn, Churtstow, Devon
Licensee Andrew Cannon has two reasons to celebrate on the night of 24 November. As well as longer opening hours with a licence to serve to midnight, this will also be the opening night of the pub, which has just been bought by St Austell's Brewery.
Cannon explains: 'At the moment the pub is closed as we're doing it up a bit. We thought the 24th would be a good day to open it, to meet all the customers and celebrate with them.'
There are already a number of food bookings organised for the night, Cannon says, so he anticipates a busy first night.
Cannon adds: 'This is my second pub - I am also the licensee of the Victoria Inn, in Salcombe, so it's all very exciting for me.'
Big top action
The Riverside Tavern, Strood, Kent
Fire-eaters, jugglers and stilt walkers are just some of the acts planned at the Riverside Tavern to celebrate the dawn of the new era. Licensee Peter Fordham has decided to save the celebrations till the Friday and Saturday nights when he will hold 'two massive circus-night parties to bring in the new licensing laws'.
Fordham continues: 'The bar staff have already been briefed that they must arrive for work dressed as freaks of the show - so half man, half lady, or as a bearded lady, for example.'
While the pub already has a licence to serve alcohol until midnight, Fordham has successfully extended this to 5am, with the licence then starting again at 7am - amounting to a 22-hour licence. However, he will not be using the full licence and plans to open at 11am and close at 2am on Friday and Saturday nights.
'I don't know what time we'll stay open till on the party nights next week. We're quite casual about it - if we want to shut at 2am we will, but if there are hundreds of people still here enjoying themselves, we'll stay open longer.'
Since it cost him more than £1,000 to hire the circus entertainment, he says there won't be any free drinks for customers. 'We're all just very, very excited about it,' he enthuses.
Anniversary beer festival
Kings Arms, Norwich
Licensees Richard Roberts and Michaela Fry are using the second appointed day as an excuse to celebrate their one-year anniversary of owning this Bateman's pub with a four-day beer festival. The celebrations will begin on Wednesday 23 November and continue until the Sunday.
Fry explains: 'We took over this pub on 23 November last year, as our first pub, and we thought why not celebrate the two events in one big beer festival?
'There will be 40 different beers on offer, which will all have an anniversary theme - many of them have gold or silver in the name, such as Winter's Golden.'
Fry has also ordered 250 glasses engraved with 'Kings Arms 1st Anniversary Beer Festival'. Customers will be given their first half of beer free when they buy one of the branded glasses.
There will also be a barbecue sizzling throughout the festival to feed the hungry customers.
While the pub has a licence to stay open till 1am, Fry will decide on the night how late to stay open, depending on how many customers are left. Since many of her customers have already booked the Thursday off work in anticipation of the celebrations, Fry is prepared to make full use of her hours.
Good old knees-up
The White Horse, Chilham, Kent
'We're going to have a good old knees-up on the 24th and a couple of locals from the village will be bringing in their guitars,' licensee Don Helsdon comments.
Helsdon will be open through till midnight, and 1am on Friday and Saturday nights.
He is expecting all the locals from the village on the Thursday night, for the celebratory evening on the 24th. 'They've all seen it advertised in our windows, plus, we've been telling them about it for ages,' he explains.
'We also have a piano in the pub, and I'm sure someone will start playing it on the night, which will get everyone singing. If only I could play the piano.
'We are all very much looking forward to the night.'
Weekend-long celebration
The Griffin, Norwich
Many of the Griffin's customers have taken the Friday and Monday off work in anticipation of the celebratory weekend at the pub. Licensee Matthew Harris explains: 'Our celebrations will begin on the morning of the new era - 8am on the Friday morning, when people will come in for breakfast.
'We will then be open right through to the Sunday evening at 11pm, so I think lots of people are probably taking the Monday off work to recover.'
While Harris will be on site the whole weekend, he and his staff will be working in shifts to keep the show on the road. Many of his customers, however, are planning to arrive on the Friday morning, stay till the Saturday afternoon, go home for a quick sleep and then return for the Saturday night to stay till the Sunday morning.
As he says: 'We want to make it a weekend we'll remember.'
Harris is decking his pub out with bunting and flags and he has also booked a karaoke company for the Friday night, as well as a band planned for the Saturday. Horse-racing videos will be watched in the pub, and darts and pool matches will also be organised. All money raised through these games will go to charity, Harris says.
He adds that because of the level of interest already generated about the event, there has been no need to do any advertising.
Toast to a new era
The Old Station, Birstwith, North Yorks
'Our customers are all going to bed early the night before,' jokes licensee Richard Caven, who has planned a party on the Friday night 'to acknowledge the fact that the licensing laws have changed, and signify the choice people will now have'.
Caven is going to take photos throughout the night as a way of remembering it, and is also planning to sound a bell at midnight and make a toast to the new era, 'something, which has, on occasions, been done in the past', he admits. While Caven has 40 people in the pub on a normal night, he anticipates 70 or so people on the 24th. 'It will be a real party, and also an opportunity to get the community together,' he adds.
Caven will be licensed to sell alcohol from 10am to midnight, and till 11pm on Sundays. He applied for the 10am opening so that people will be able to come in for a beer before the races (at nearby Ripon horse racing course) in the summer.
Massive music event
Harry's Bar & Liars, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
'We have four bars here, and are refitting the main one for the night of the 24th,' explains licensee Rob McKeon. While the new bar will be ready on the Thursday, McKeon is saving celebrations for the Friday night, when more customers visit the pub.
'We have planned a massive launch do, a music event focusing on what we normally do - an Indie night, but bigger,' - ex-radio presenter McKeon enthuses.
The pub currently has a licence to serve alcohol to 2am, however this will be extending to 4am, with the bar opening again at 10am.
McKeon adds: 'Food is also going to be more important to us now, and we are already looking at how we can target customers at the different ends of the day, with breakfast in the mornings and various options to ke