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in: Pub crawls, Drinking culture, Beer, Drinking games

Pub crawl

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A pub crawl (sometimes called a "bar tour" or bar-hopping, bender or "alcocrawl") is the act of visiting and consuming alcoholic beverages at a number of pubs in a single night with a group of friends. It's purportedly called a "crawl" because the participants are literally crawling from pub to pub after getting drunk at the first few pubs. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term (including variations like 'gin crawl' and 'beer crawl') has been in use since the late 19th century. A common reason to hold a pub crawl is celebrate the birthday of a person who reached the legal drinking age. The pubs chosen for the route can be chosen according to a theme.

Pub crawls in suburban areas often involve the use of an automobile for transportation, due to pubs being farther apart and the lack of public transportation. This is a common situation in the United States because of its largely dispersed population, but it is by no means limited to that country. Rather than driving drunk, some pub crawlers use the designated driver system or taxis. For special occasions, such as bachelor parties, people sometimes charter a van, bus, or limousine with a professional driver for the evening.

Many European cities have regular organised public pub crawls that act as social gatherings for the local expat communities and tourists. These pub crawls focus on the social aspect of meeting new friends and being introduced to new bars in a strange city. Example's of these include the FunkyParis pub crawl in Paris and the FunkyRiviera pub crawls in Nice and Cannes.

Some pub crawls are organized as an annual event and may be so large that the participants do not even know all of the other people in the group. For example, it is common for Irish-American groups to have a bar tour on or around St. Patrick's Day. The group may even have t-shirts made for the occasion. Some organized pub crawls are even held for charity. Participants pay a flat fee, which allows then to enter all of the participating bars, without having to pay cover charges at each bar. The fee may also include a certain number of drinks. A portion of the proceeds is then donated to a particular charity.

Examples of themed pub crawls[]

  • Chicago's Twelve bars of xmas pub crawl (aka, "TBOX"), which has been held annually since 1996, and had over 1,700 attendees in 2004. Starting at 10:30AM, revelers traverse bars in Chicago's Wrigleyville neighborhood, many in Christmas-related costumes.
  • The London Underground pub crawl, which involves drinking at a pub closest to each of the stops on a single tube line, the Circle Line being a popular choice as participants start and finish in the same area.
  • The Subcrawl, a similar notion involving the circular Glasgow Underground.
  • The Monopoly Pub Crawl, which involves drinking at a pub on each of the London streets on the board of the British version of Monopoly. It can also be embarked upon in any city or country having a Monopoly Board dedicated to it.
  • The Evening Standard Pub of the Year pub crawl, which involves drinking at each winner of the prestigious London award.
  • The Pub Golf Crawl, consists of 9 or 18 pubs (holes) where you must drink in each hole, variations exist but commonly the rule is the amount of 'swigs' from a pint is your score, e.g. if you down your pint in 1 you get a 1 scored on your card, down in 3 and you have a 3 score added, the winner has the lowest score at then end.
  • The Daniel Day Luas pub crawl named after Daniel Day-Lewis and the LUAS tram), which is held annually in Dublin on the day after St. Stephen's Day and involves riding the north line of the LUAS from Dundrum to St. Stephen's Green. It is mandatory to refer to everyone participating in the pub crawl as "Daniel".

Examples of famous pub crawls[]

  • SOME (Society of Mechanical engineers) with the university of South Australia has held several pub crawls every year since ever. With intelligent themes such as: KFE (kompletely fucked engineers), Fluid dynamics 101 (including equations for intoxication) and the four stroke cycle (suck squeeze bang blow). They organise these events them selves with out help from "event coordinators" unlike the university of adeliade. SOME RULE! University of adelaide also stole "Thomas the Tanked Engie" theme before SOME could patent it! shame.... shame....
  • The Adelaide University Engineering Society (AUES), a student society within the University of Adelaide, holds the largest pubcrawl in the Southern Hemisphere. The crawl is held in March each year and draws thousands of students wearing a themed t-shirt each year. The theme is usually a parody of well-known children's literature, such as or "Where's Wobbly".
  • The Red Line Pub Crawl, in which participants use the Red Line (Chicago Transit Authority) of the Chicago L to visit numerous Southside, Chicago Loop and Northside pubs.
  • In the City of Oswego, New York, college students from the State University of New York at Oswego participate in a yearly “pub crawl” known as the Bridge Street Run on the final day of classes at the college. Students travel to approximately 20 different bars on Bridge Street, the main thoroughfare located in the city, over a distance of 2 miles drinking at least one alcoholic beverage at each bar.
  • The King Street Run, a famous English pub crawl well known to anyone familiar with drinking in Cambridge.
  • The Eccles Eleven, visiting the 12 Joseph Holt Brewery pubs in the Eccles area of Greater Manchester. Unfortunately impossible nowadays as several of the pubs are no longer owned by Joseph Holt's. The area still remains popular for pub crawls, however, as it has the highest number of pubs per person for any area of the UK, all literally yards from each other.
  • The Duval Crawl, drinking at every bar on Duval Street in Key West, Florida.
  • The Otley Run - a pub crawl down Otley Road into Leeds City Centre, UK.
  • The Campus 14 - a bar crawl around the University of Nottingham campus.
  • The Mumbles Mile pub crawl in Swansea, Wales. Featuring all the pubs along a mile long road in Mumbles.
  • The Rose Street pub crawl of Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • The Royal Mile pub crawl of Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • The Circle Line pub crawl of London, England. Involving going to a pub at every stop on London Underground's Circle Line.
  • The Hamtun pub crawl of Southampton, England. Involving only going to pubs within the walls of the medieval town of Hamtun (The old name for Southampton).
  • Stora nationsrundan - drinking at all 13 student nations in Uppsala, Sweden.
  • The Barathon bar race of Montreal, Quebec, which involves drinking a total of 4.2 litres of beer and a shooter representing the 42km of a marathon. This is done by drinking a half-pint in 18 different bars on the Plateau Mont-Royal, followed by a shooter in the final 19th bar representing a sprint to the finish line. The maximum distance between bars is 300m, so efficient drink-ordering technique and chugging ability are crucial.

See also[]

  • The Tinny Mish (or 'Tin Mish) is a small tradition in Leyland, Lancashire, allegedly.

External links[]

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