MAGAZINE

The dust has settled

I am hoping that by the time you reading this, I will have regained some energy, following the conclusion of the six-month project that is the National Pub & Bar Awards.

I am also hoping that you are well up to speed as to what happened at the blockbuster on-trade celebration in June, as keeping up with our social media notifications certainly took some doing – from the BBC to Time Out, the news about this year’s winners spread fast and wide. 

Six months? Really? Yes, this much is true. Entries for this event open at the beginning of the year, as does the voting for the Industry’s Choice Award (read more about that on page 24). From then, it’s a case of meticulously reading through every entry that comes in before shortlisting hundreds of nominees from around the UK. This was a new addition for the National Pub & Bar Awards, meaning every county in the country had a selection of venues up for a gong – they also got two free tickets to the event. 

As I said on the night, the idea behind these additions was to share the publicity and goodwill of the awards with a greater number of pubs and bars. It meant that at the ceremony inside Big Penny Social in London, we were able to hand out not just 13 Regional Winner trophies or, indeed, the 94 County Winner awards, but on top of that 192 Highly Commended certificates. Don’t ask me to add all of those up – let’s just say it was a lot. 

So the plan seemed to work. The 2025 National Pub & Bar Awards brought together double the attendees of previous years, with everyone in the room being able to return back to their venues with something to display with pride. If you were there, I really hope you enjoyed your night. Now that the dust has settled, I suppose we better start thinking about 2026 and the little matter of the event’s 10-year anniversary.

Tristan O’Hana - Editor