Ideal for sipping by the stage this summer
With summer festivals back on the calendar (rejoice!), we just can’t wait to be among like minded people, having a singsong to some live music and perhaps even a cheeky little tipple or two.
What we’re not looking forward to, however, is all that queuing at the bar. Fortunately, many of the UK’s biggest events allow attendees to bring their own booze, as long as it’s not in a glass bottle and you’re not bringing a whole bar along for the weekend.
So, turn the tunes up loud and put the cans, pouches and reusable plastic bottles on ice. To celebrate festival season, we’ve pulled together our best drinks to take to a festival this summer, IDEAL for sipping by the stage this summer.
Ella’s Kitchen Organic Smoothies & Vodka
Ideal for the morning after…
We’ve all been there, waking up in a hot tent with a bad headache and a dry mouth. It’s a feeling that defines Glasto, Reading et al, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
And whilst thinking about it has brought on a strange sense of nostalgia, it’s not a feeling you want lingering for long. The answer? Well, firstly, lots and lots of water, of course. Following that, and as every keen festival-goer will attest, a little hair of the dog is the best way to get back in your groove.
For this DIY creation, you’ll need to head to the children’s aisle of the supermarket. We realise that this is not what Ella and her Kitchen had in mind when designing their amazing smoothies in a pouch, but when you go to a festival, you’ve got to get creative with the liquids you take in.
Of course, any smoothie in a pouch will work, but we’re particularly fond of Ella’s Kitchen 100% organic fruit smoothies. The Red One is a firm favourite; packed with apples, bananas, strawberries, watermelon juice and raspberries, and about as reinvigorating a breakfast as you’ll find at a festival. The Green one, full of apples, kiwis, bananas, pears and white grape juice, is equally replenishing. Your body will be thankful for all the vitamins, and if you use it as a morning mixer and add something a little bit stronger, well, everyone’s a winner…
This will set you back only 79p a pouch or £3.50 for a multipack of 5! Of course, you have to factor in the cost of the bottle of vodka, too.
Bloody Classic
Ideal for an afternoon pick me up…
Let’s face it, tinned cocktails can be disappointing; either too sickly, prone to parching rather than refreshing, or just plain nasty. Not this one, though.
The guys behind Bloody Classic spent years “fine tuning” the classic Bloody Mary, and fine tuned it they have. Lauded by the Evening Standard as the best canned cocktail of 2021 and with rave reviews coming in from the Independent and Telegraph, too, there’s no denying that this little tin is as much the ideal festival companion as a self inflating camping pillow or your mate who always brings a sharing supply of his famous homemade brownies.
The secret is that the Bloody Classic uses 100% natural ingredients, and is expertly blended with with tomato juice, vodka, Amontillado sherry, fresh lemon juice, their own pickle juice, Worcestershire sauce, a dash of soy, and last but not least, TABASCO® Brand Pepper Sauce.
In our eyes, it’s the ideal cocktail for an afternoon pick me up, when your energy levels are dropping but you’ve got your heart set on seeing the session through to the headliner.
Considering a quality cocktail like this will set you back over a tenner in most places, Bloody Classic retailing at £13.00 for a 4, £19.00 for a 6 pack or £36 for a 12 pack represents something of a steal.
Pinkster Gin On Tap
Ideal for sharing…
The price of £99 per box might make you grimace at first. However, split between a group of friends, you’ve actually got yourself one hell of a deal.
What’s more, the flavour of this tipple certainly won’t have you grimacing. Pinkster Gin on Tap is a three litre carton of delightfully refreshing raspberry infused gin, providing over 100 serves per box and containing the equivalent of over four bottles of gin. Think about it, 100 serves at a festival bar would probably cost you upwards of £700…thrifty kings, queens and monarchs arise!
Hand-steeped in fresh raspberries which have been grown in Cambridgeshire, Pinkster Gin makes for a deliciously dry gin, with a hint of fruit and an exceptionally smooth finish. Hey, that makes a glass one of your five-a-day, right?
Pinkster on Tap retails at £99 for 3 litres with free delivery. Find it at pinkstergin.com
El Bandarra Aperitivos
Ideal for afternoon spent in the sunshine (ideally before hitting the paella food stall)…
Bored of Pimms? Us too. Made to be mixed with tonic, El Bandarra offers a refreshing range of natural aperitifs from Barcelona. The range includes a red and white Vermouth and an Al Fresco Aperitivo produced with a blend of Grenache wines, with the addition of Mediterranean botanicals including liquorice, mint, rose and citrus.
Phwoar, that sounds like a bit of alright to us, and a welcome deviation from the UK’s standard festival drinks.
El Bandarra Al Fresco is best served with tonic and a wedge of orange as the garnish for a taste of Barcelona in a bottle! Speaking of the bottle, this tipple is bottled in a reusable bottle made of glass, so you may have to decant this one to take to a festival with you.
Primavera Sound tickets, anyone?
This bottle of sunshine is just £20.99 per 1 litre bottle from El Bandarra
Neck Oil
Ideal for a session in the sunshine…
While we love feeling like we’re drinking a ‘proper pint’ at a festival, those festival beers soon add up financially. What you need is to bring with you an additional stock of session beers, to keep costs down.
Enter Neck Oil. Billed as the leading craft beer brewery Beavertown’s ‘go-to anytime you want a beer, beer’, Neck Oil Beavertown is by far our favourite session beer. It’s light, zingy and easy to drink, and perhaps most important for a festival can, it’s still delicious lukewarm!
A case of 24 330ml cans will set you back £45
Lowlander Beer
Ideal for when you need to take a break…
There’s only so much Red Stripe and plastic cups of cider that one can drink at a festival. Honestly, we’ve tried; there’s only so much.
Sometimes, you need a break from all the alcohol, but sipping water at a festival just ain’t quite the same when all your pals are necking those Neck Oils. Enter Lowlander’s Cool Earth lager – a range of no and low alcohol beers brewed with botanicals in The Netherlands.
We’re big fans of their 0.0% Wit Beer, but even better is their 0.3% IPA brewed with mango, cardamom and orange peel. As delicious as anything stronger, in our humble opinion.
Sustainability is at the heart of everything Lowlander do. That 0.00% Wit Beer we mentioned is brewed with reclaimed orange and lemon peel from bars and restaurants in The Netherlands, and we just love it.
Moreover, with every can of Cool Earth Lager sold, Lowlander adds another plant to a seagrass meadow in the Wadden Sea off the coast of The Netherlands, which helps capture carbon 35 times faster than a tropical rainforest. Find out more about the brand at lowlander-beer.com
Witt Beer is £1.99 for 330ml and their IPA well set you back only £2.09 for 330ml from Wise Bartender
How do you keep these drinks cool at a festival? Well, there’s the obvious cool box full of water. Another tip is to fill a plastic, portable washing up basin with water; pop your drinks in and cover with foil blankets, and the reflective properties of the blanket keeps the water cool.