Perth Cocktail Week, taking place from Friday May 31 to Sunday June 9, will see more than 30 venues from across the city take part in the new initiative to drive footfall into the Fair City’s restaurants, bars and cafés.
Organised by Scottish marketing and events firm M.ad Agency, the Cocktail Week format – which signs up venues to offer discounts and deals across 10 days – has already been successfully rolled out by the agency in St Andrews and Dundee.
The Perth event is being run with support from Perth and Kinross Council, which is keen to promote the newly opened Perth Museum, which recently underwent a £27 million redevelopment.
Venues already signed up include St John’s Bar and Restaurant, The Cherrybank Inn, The Bothy, The Bank Bar, Brown and Blacks, Deans, and The Giddy Goose. To get access to Cocktail Week offers, visitors need to purchase a wristband for the week.
Event organiser and director of M.ad Agency, Alice Christison said: “It’s incredible to see a modern, forward-thinking and proactive council taking steps to support businesses in their community.
“Our Cocktail and Restaurant Week concepts work well. They draw new people into the area, offer a fresh incentive to drive traffic and footfall for hospitality businesses and give the public a way to help support their favourite venues without spending too much money.
“We love the passion from the Council for this project and they should be praised for actively supporting local business. I’m a passionate and proud Scot and have lived and worked in the area for years. Hospitality has been faced with many challenges these past few years, but initiatives like Cocktail Week really have helped increase footfall during traditionally quieter periods.”
Councillor Eric Drysdale, Convener of the Council’s Environment, Infrastructure and Economic Development Committee, added: “Perth Cocktail Week is a great opportunity for local businesses to capitalise on interest in the city from the opening of the new Perth Museum, the new home to the Stone of Destiny.
“Each of the businesses involved will benefit from the promotion of Cocktail Week as an overall offer, while being able to show local people and visitors why they should come back again and again.”
Although this is the first time the Cocktail Week format has been used in Perth, in nearby Dundee, in 2022, 56 venues took part, generating an estimated £253,184 for the local economy. The event’s first year in St Andrews last year generated an estimated local economy spend of £491,568.
