Letting off lockdown steam
IT was the Friday night out that some will have spent the best part of six months dreaming of.
And as revellers hit Newcastle city centre, they were met with sunshine, celebrations – and two-hour-long queues just to get a drink.
The last time the city’s pubs and bars were open on a Friday night was in October, the day before Boris Johnson announced the second lockdown.
Drinkers, however, more than made up for lost time. For many, it was their second or even third night out since many venues reopened on Monday.
Among them, Billingham’s Zac Wardel. He was back out on Friday, after spending 13 hours drinking at a Wetherspoon pub on Monday.
“You couldn’t book a table anywhere else, and once you are inside they are one of the only places where you don’t have a time limit,” said Zac, who also praised the chain’s policy of not charging a deposit.
“For a group that is a 30 or 40 quid deposit, that’s why everyone comes.”
On Friday, as other venues focused on reservations, both The Quayside and another branch, The Mile Castle, had enormous queues outside.
At the latter, drinkers faced a slightly shorter one hour wait. However, the firm’s rules didn’t please everyone.
“We’ve been here about 20 minute’s and haven’t moved,” said one customer shortly before 8pm. The problem is you don’t have to leave and this time of day, people won’t.’”
The firm’s policy could be a solution to one of the biggest teething problems venues in the city have faced in the first week back.
No-shows have plagued pubs during the first five days of reopening, with venues losing small fortunes as customers booked a table but didn’t
honour it. Some have charged deposits although others have stuck with a walk-in system.
On Friday, more venues told the Sunday Sun that they’d also had a problem with no-shows while other nightspots – which doormen claimed were fully booked – had multiple tables sitting empty.
Management at one venue, The Purple Peacock, said that a deposit would be needed to secure a table from next Friday after several groups failed to show.
Yet while the city centre was lively, it wasn’t chaotic. Customers drank within their bubbles, while the police presence was minimal
■ Zac Wardel
as crowds behaved themselves.
For most, it wasn’t about going wild. It was merely a chance to let off some lockdown steam, or in Lacey Robson’s case, celebrate a major milestone.
She hit the town to mark her 18th birthday. Flanked by friends on the Quayside, she admitted: “I had been hoping for a night out but I’m just lucky that (restrictions have been eased) now, as a lot of my friends had to stay in for their birthday.”
Others, like Jesmond’s Sophie Evans, were simply out to have some fun.
“It is just the best feeling finally being able to enjoy a bit of freedom again,” she added. “The last few months have felt impossible at times. But things feel more and more normal by the week.”
For venues though, space is still limited and many won’t reopen until May 17 when people can eat and drink inside.
And for others whose livelihoods is so dependent on a booming nighttime economy, things aren’t quite back to normal yet.
Taxi driver Ali Yasinogly said that for all the excitement around the reopening of hospitality, for him, business was no different on Friday to any other night this week. He said: “People are still in fear, they are still worried. I wasn’t expecting too much to change and I think people are keeping themselves for May 17.”