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Festival teams up with sober bar to 'create change'

Matty EdwardsBristol
News imageKhali Photography A large crowd watching the West Stage at Forwards. A woman in white jeans and playing a guitar is performing on stage and you can see her on the screens either side of the stage. There a large orange lights shining down on the stage and behind it a beautiful sunset is taking place in similar colours over the horizon.Khali Photography
Sixty thousand people are expected to attend Forward Festival over the August bank holiday weekend

Festival organisers have said they are teaming up with a sober bar to "create social change".

The Arc in Bristol is taking its selection of non-alcoholic moodtails to the city's Forwards Festival later this summer. It comes as figures show a quarter of 16 to 25-year-olds are not drinking alcohol at all.

Ben Price, from Forwards, said they were joining forces with The Arc because of the festival's aim to do things differently and create social change.

The Arc's founder Javier Tanke said sober events are all about "the music, the connection, the people" rather than finding an excuse to drink.

News imageARC Two men are making drinks at the bar. Javier Tanke is wearing a dark jacket, red scarf and yellow baseball cap, while the other man in the background is wearing a cream fleece. ARC
The Arc is run by a community interest company so any profit is reinvested back into the community space

According to recent studies from Alcohol Change UK and Drink Aware an increasing number of people are either going teetotal or drinking less alcohol, especially with young adult age groups.

The data shows, 16 to 25-year-olds were the most likely to be teetotal, with 26% not drinking, compared to the least likely generation (55 to 74-year-olds), 15% of whom did not drink.

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Tanke said in Bristol the most interesting category is the "functional drinks", which have cordyceps, lion's mane, herbal ingredients that make you feel different.

"We call our bar a mood bar with moodtails, drinks designed to get you in a mood, whether it's relaxing you or bringing you up," he said, as opposed to alcohol which he said ultimately brings you down.

News imageJavier Tanke is stood behind the bar, wearing an orange beanie hat and dark shirt. He has a short, grey beard.
Tanke hopes his sober bar will be the first of many in Bristol city centre

Ben Price, from Forwards, said there has been huge success of other festivals opting for more alcohol-free drinks, which is why it was a "no-brainer" to try out something similar.

"What it does is it gives those people looking for these drinks a much wider offering and it's much more inclusive to those audiences," he added.

Forwards Festival is taking place on Clifton Downs over 29-30 August bank holiday weekend, with a capacity of 60,000 people across the two days.

Rapper Little Simz and songstress Tems are headlining the event.

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