Pub gardens are the nation's favourite place for a pint

A YouGov survey conducted by CAMRA has revealed that the beer drinking British public would prefer to sink a pint in a pub garden than a friends’ garden or a music festival.

Slightly more than half of all drinkers (55%) said the pub garden was their favourite place for a pint during the summer. 

A quarter of respondents said their favourite spot would be a family member or friend’s garden while 8% said it would be at a summer music festival.

Just 2% of those surveyed said they preferred to drink in a park while only 6% said their ideal location was an outside seating area at a restaurant.

CAMRA has encouraged punters and publicans to participate in its ‘summer of the pub’ campaign.​

The campaign encourages as many people as possible to visit their local to take part in a “feel-good” programme of events, which so far has included the Women’s World Cup and the week-long Great British Beer Festival, which begins today (Tuesday 6 August) at the Olympia exhibition centre in west-London.

CAMRA hopes that beer-lovers in the city for the festival will also visit a pub and has created a webpage with information about nearby pub events.​

Ben Wilkinson, CAMRA’s national director said pub gardens helped create connections among communities.

“It comes as no surprise that pub-gardens are a popular hot-spot for over half of all UK drinkers in the warmer months," he explained.

“A good beer garden is the ideal place to catch up with old friends and make new ones. 

“We know from academic research that people with a local pub have more close friends and feel closer to their communities - something we can all raise a glass to!" 

Wilkinson added: “While most people value the role community pubs play, not everyone is aware of the huge financial pressures that they face and the threats to their survival. 

“Our Summer of Pub campaign aims to show what pubs have to offer and remind people how important the great British pub is to communities.”