Brighton is good for a whole lot of things. There’s its outstanding seaside fish and chips (obviously), it’s abundance of cute and quirky indie shops, its world famous Pride festival (headlined this year by the one and only Mariah Carey) and it’s assemblage of absolutely fantastic bars.
Now, to show off just how good its mixology is, Brighton and Hove is hosting its first ever cocktail festival. More than 50 bars will be taking part in the ten-day event, including Gung Ho!, Bar Medusa, the Plotting Parlour and the speakeasy style Bar Valentino, all of which feature on Time Out’s list of the best bars in the city.
All you have to do is buy a ticket and show up to a participating bar of your choice, where they’ll offer two festival cocktails for £6 each and one virgin cocktail for £4. You’re limited to one festival cocktail per customer per bar, so that everyone gets to sample as many classic and out-there concoctions as they can. The idea is that you can pick all the bars you’ve been dying to try and map out your own personal bar crawl.
Take it from Time Out’s resident Brighton expert, Liv Kelly: ‘Brighton’s bar scene is brilliant, but it’s also underrated, and the fact some of the best in the city are offering specially crafted drinks for just £6 should be music to everyone’s ears. Some of my favourites are The Plotting Parlour, Bar Valentino and Bar Halisco, so if you’re in town for a couple of days during the festival, definitely head to those spots.’
The booze fest will be happening from September 19 to September 28, 2025. Early bird tickets are on sale right now for just £15. Get yours here. If you simply can’t wait until then, you can always book onto a Brighton Cocktail Tour, which run year-round and take you three of Brighton’s finest cocktail-focused establishments.
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