More than 3,000 people came out in force to support the inaugural St Andrews Cocktail Week.
Taking place across a 10-day period from March 24 to April 2, the event saw a total of 45 venues sign up to take part.
Established to help encourage more people to visit hospitality venues in and around the centre of the popular tourist and student town, St Andrews Cocktail Week has been hailed “a huge success” by organisers Marketing After Dark based in Dundee.
The team launched Dundee Cocktail Week last October and expanded into a different market for the first time this spring.
2024 event dates
As a result of its success, the 2024 dates for St Andrews Cocktail Week have now been released, and tickets are also now on sale for the event which will take place from March 15 to March 24.
Organisers reported that some venues saw an increase in sales of around 20% and one venue sold almost 1,400 cocktails in the 10 days.
Cocktail fans were invited to purchase wristbands that would see them get access to signature cocktails, discounted drinks and food from participating venues, and even allowed them access to offers in some local stores.
Venues involved included The Adamson, The Saint, Forgan’s, Hams Hame, The Rule and Luvian’s Bottleshop to name a few.
Alice Christison of Marketing After Dark said the event “couldn’t have gone better.”
“Some of the venues I spoke with reported having the busiest weeks of the year so far which is fantastic.
“We are absolutely blown away by the response to the inaugural event with the final number of attendees more than double what we had originally anticipated.
“We set out to deliver footfall to the town and support local businesses which we believe we have done. Now we will take a moment to look at all the feedback from the week, then look forward to planning our 2024 and making it even bigger and better.”
St Andrews Cocktail Week good for local business
Fraser Wilson is the assistant manager of The Criterion on South Street. The bar only started focusing on cocktails when Fraser joined just over a year ago and was one of the venues that reported a record week for drinks sales.
He said: “Thanks to St Andrews Cocktail Week, Saturday was our busiest day in the bar since Hogmanay and it was a record-breaking cocktail day for us.”
Feedback from wristband holders showed 88% of customers would purchase a wristband for 2024 and 64% used them across multiple days.
Unsurprisingly 60% of wristband holders favourite part of the event was the discounted cocktails, however 34% said it was to help support local businesses.
One individual said: “I thought it was great fun and gave me an excuse to socialise that week. It felt it was an effective way to connect with different local businesses,” while another added: “The town was buzzing and there was a great atmosphere in all the venues that we visited.”
For more information on the 2024 event visit standrewscocktailweek.co.uk
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