Boozy Brits enjoy first Friday night of freedom since Covid restriction are lifted as revellers pack out clubs and bars
BOOZY Brits enjoyed the first Friday night of freedom since Covid restrictions are lifted as revellers pack out clubs and bars.
Huge crowds gathered for a dance on their first night out on the town in a year and a half.
Hundreds of people gathered outside some clubs – including the Casino Room in Rochester, Kent – in a bid to join pals on the dancefloor.
Punters waited from 9pm to get into Astoria nightclub in Portsmouth to make the most of the night.
The club was expecting more than 2,000 people for the first big night in more than a year.
Bosses say every staff member has a Covid test before their shift.
The venue also has had the most NHS app check ins in the country, with the exception of concerts and sporting events this week, they say.
In Birmingham, girls posed for pictures as thousands of revellers descended onto Broad Street to make the most of their first week of freedom.
The sell-out event ‘Vodbull’ was on at Rosies nightclub, which was packed to the rafters with energetic partygoers.
The queue snaked round barriers – and club owners say the atmosphere was the same as New Year’s Eve in 2019.
Most club nights this weekend are already fully booked.
July 19 marked Freedom Day – the day where social distancing, working from home and compulsory face masks were scrapped.
And by midnight last Sunday, long queues had started to form outside venues with revellers keen to party away the memories of the past 18 months in lockdown.
The reopening of the country’s 12,000 nightclubs was eagerly awaited by partygoers.
Veteran nightclub-goers grinned as they were finally able to swap the couch and pyjamas for dance-floors and glad rags.
Excited clubbers queued up for more than an hour outside EGG nightclub in North London ahead of its reopening at midnight.
Nightclubber Chloe Waite, 37, said: “It’s a bit like New Year isn’t it? It’s going to be a special night.
“Whether we’ll have more of these in the future, who can say, I wouldn’t like to speculate.
“For me this is something we’re going to remember for a long, long time and we might not get the opportunity for a while.”
Newcastle’s Powerhouse nightclub was one of several venues that hosted midnight “freedom” parties as restrictions ended, along with G-Bar in Liverpool and Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall’s South Shields nightclub, Industry.
Demand was so high for parties in the early hours some clubs were forced to make events ticketed – with many almost sold out before they opened.
It comes as a huge boost to the hospitality industry, which has struggled to make a profit with limited capacity allowed indoors due to social distancing regulations.
And Brits will no longer need to check in to venues by scanning a QR code using the Test and Trace app.
However, Boris Johnson begged the public for a “cautious” end to lockdown.
He said: “We’ve got to do it cautiously. We’ve got to remember that this virus is sadly still out there.
“Cases are rising, we can see the extreme contagiousness of the Delta variant.
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“But we have this immense satisfaction that the vaccine programme has very severely weakened the link between infection and hospitalisation, and between infection and serious illness and death.
“So please, please, please be cautious and go forward tomorrow into the next step with all the right prudence and respect for other people.
“And above all, please, please, please, when you’re asked to get that second jab, get the jab, please come forward and do it.”