Brighton has a habit of taking a good idea and making it big, and the Brighton Cocktail Festival is the latest example. Now in its second edition, it's grown into the UK's largest cocktail event, and the 2026 version runs from Friday 18 to Sunday 27 September, ten days of mixology spread across Brighton & Hove. Each day opens at 09:00 and closes at 22:00, so there's plenty of room to work your way around the city at your own pace.
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The scale is the first thing that stands out: more than 50 of the city's best bars are taking part, and the range between them is wide. There's Cut Your Wolf Loose, a whisky bar with graffiti on the walls; Bar Valentino, a 1920s-style speakeasy; Apiary, which leans into a bee theme; and Helm, a bar set inside an art gallery. The Victoria Bar at The Grand is the most recognisable name on the list, and it's joined by The Plotting Parlour, Paris Wine Bar, L'Atelier du Vin, The Ivy, Burger & Lobster, Lucky Voice, the Dishoom Permit Room, The Ginger Pig, HarBAR, The Joker, The Salt Room and Stem. That's a lot of ground to cover, which is where the festival's structure comes in.
A ticket gets you access to more than 150 exclusive festival cocktails, all at £6 a piece, with non-alcoholic versions at £4. Early Bird tickets are £15, and beyond the drinks themselves the festival lays on cocktail trails, experiences and offers across the city. The cocktails are the real draw, and the first ones revealed give you a sense of the ambition on show: Bar Valentino's Bread & Butter tastes of toast and melted butter, The Plotting Parlour's Pinaquiri plays on pineapple, No 124's Don't Beet Around The Bush mixes beetroot and bergamot, and Furna's Corn Hub is built around BBQ sweetcorn. Harry Philippson, the festival's founder, has singled out the Cereal Killer from Bar Valentino, the Boozy Cow from No 124 and the Hivewire from Apiary as ones to look for.
There's also a bit of tech involved this year. A new Brighton Cocktail Festival App, which the organisers describe as the first of its kind globally, launched on the App Store and Google Play on 14 April. It's built by Brighton Cocktail Experiences Ltd and lets you discover bars and cocktails, follow a live interactive map, build your own cocktail trails, bookmark and rate venues and track down offers. It's a handy companion when you're deciding which bar to head to next.
The story behind the festival is a local one. Harry Philippson moved to Brighton & Hove after the pandemic and runs Brighton Cocktail Tours; he's the one who has turned this into the country's biggest cocktail event, a title it has picked up in part because London Cocktail Week has moved to March 2027. It's all part of a wider push on the city's drinks scene, with Brighton also set to host its first Whisky Weekend in June. Whether you're in it for the drinks, the bars or just a ten-day excuse to wander the city with a cocktail in hand, there's plenty here to get stuck into.
Published Date
9 August 2026
