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LONDON COCKTAIL Week is claimed to be the biggest drinks festival in the UK. The organiser, with its DrinkUp.London website, says it attracted a record 20,000 visitors last year.

Basically, participants pay £10 for a wristband which gets them unlimited £5 cocktails in more than 250 of London’s best bars throughout the week.

It also provides:

Week-long entry to the London Cocktail Week Village at Old Spitalfields Market – a collection of pop-up bars, trucks, vans and even bicycles taking over the whole of the market, where all cocktails are £5;

Week-long entry to the World Class House, where visitors can attend workshops and classes by World Class bartenders and experts, try a range of drinks and get involved in an “immersive pop-up to transport you Into the Unknown”;

A guidebook to London’s best cocktail bars highlighting where participants can enjoy discounted drinks during the festival.

Deals and discounts above and beyond cocktails include food pairing menus, bottle discounts and access to specially-created events, master classes, pop-ups and parties.

The wristbands are available to buy at: DrinkUp.London/CocktailWeek

For the trade it is a chance to catch up and see what is going on in the cocktail capital of the world.

LCW attendance October 2015:

20,000 wristband wearers across the capital (2014: 15,200 )

8,500 event tickets allocated (2014: 6,800)

More than 40,000 visitors to The London Cocktail Week Village at Old Spitalfields Market (with a venue footfall of 200,000)

More than 7,000 visitors to the World Class House

125,000 £5 cocktails served across the capital in 275 bars, equating to more than £625,000 injected into the capital’s bar scene