Your plans of sipping beers lakeside in Leipzig or seeing the sun rise at the Stone Circle might be dashed, but don't set fire to your bucket hat just yet. There's still plenty of fun to be had this summer.
Up to six people are now allowed inside private homes in the UK, which makes this the perfect opportunity to hone your entertaining skills. For our new series, we've spoken to experts in food, wine, music and immersive events for their advice on transforming your kitchen, living room or broom cupboard into the hottest spot in town.
A few weeks into lockdown my friends started wistfully talking about the things they missed the most. Proper coffee, the humming noise of a restaurant in the swing of service and even the daily dose of human interaction that the commute offers were regularly mentioned, but the thing I kept hearing people say they were desperate for was a nightclub.
The sweat of bodies tightly packed together all moving to the same beat feels like a memory from a simpler time that will perhaps never be seen with the same innocence as it was pre-pandemic. But while festivals, clubs and busy bars will return at some point, in some form, there are ways to upgrade your music offering in the meantime if you're hosting [the government approved number of] friends this summer.
"While clubbing is off the menu, you're still free to bring the party back to yours, but you need the essentials in place first," says Paul Noble, founder and Artistic Director of listening venue Spiritland. "That means quality refreshments, a proper sound-system and the right music."
He recommends kicking off the evening with a simple three ingredient cocktail like a Sidecar, Mint Julep or Gimlet, all punchy drinks which "will get your guests to where they want to go" as the evening unfolds.
When it comes to the listening experience, nobody is expecting a Funktion-One Dance Stack of speakers to turn your living room into Fabric's Room 2, but at the same time your laptop speakers aren't going to cut it if you want a party.
"The Sonos Move is deceptively powerful for a small unit, and is wireless, meaning no stretching power leads out to the balcony," Noble says. "If you're looking to go deeper, Lyngdorf amplifiers come with room correction software to tune your speakers to the room itself, with mind-blowing results."
Music-wise, recommending individual albums is always hard but Noble says there are a few picks from his playlist that you can't go far wrong with. "The Leon Ware farewell album Rainbow Deux is magnificent," he says of his recommendation for the kind of background music which sets the tone of the evening perfectly. "Elsewhere Stockholm's Opolopo treads the line between house and boogie perfectly, or dig out Seahawks for after-hours Balearic bliss."
"Strictly BYOSM," he adds, before clarifying, "Bring Your Own Smoke Machine.
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