Dry Hire & Wet Hire Events...What's The Difference?

When you are looking for a venue online, it often displays the venues as either “dry” or “wet” hire venues or includes the option to hire the venue using either way. In simple terms this just means that the venue will either provide their own bar and bar staff, or you will have to provide it yourself.

Sometimes when you're looking through websites like TagVenue and HireSpace you might see that the venue does have its own bar but displays a dry hire option. This simply means that there is an option for you to run the event without the help of, or with limited help from the venue and therefore you may have to bring your own provisions, such as a PA system and lighting or pay for the use of the venue's, you will also have to bring your own staff and alcohol.

It's completely up to you if you want to have a dry or wet hire event but it's important to bear in mind a few things. Firstly, dry hiring a venue normally costs more money, especially when the venue has the ability to run its own bar in the first place. Secondly, if you do decide to run your own bar, the venue may not provide you with staff to run this bar which is another thing you will have to arrange and another added cost (The Brewery, 2018). You will also need to have someone overseeing or working on the bar who has a alcohol licence otherwise you could end up getting into trouble (GOV.UK, 2018).

Another thing to bear in mind is that you are going to have to try and plan ahead of time when it comes to how much alcohol you buy for the event and if you're not certain on numbers you could end up having loads of alcohol left over at the end of the event or not enough...which is even worse, trust me.

Now at this point, I think it's important to mention that certain alcohol suppliers will provide alcohol “On Tick” which basically means they will give you as much alcohol as you want and whatever you don't use at the end of the night you can give back...However, doing it this way is more expensive as the suppliers will charge a premium for this service included in the price of the alcohol you sell.

So all of this might have put you off a little bit if you were thinking of running a dry hire event with your own bar, however, if you are certain on numbers you can estimate the number of drinks people will purchase and weigh that against all the costs incurred in running your own bar and if the numbers look in your favour then why not give it a go. Running a successful bar can be the difference between breaking even and making a lot of money on an event, especially if you are planning your event in a major city where the venue hire is much more expensive.

If you would like to check out some dry hire venues then follow the links below:

https://hirespace.com/Top/London/Dry-Hire-Venues-London

https://www.canvas-events.co.uk/venues/dry-hire

References

GOV.UK. (2018). Alcohol licensing. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/alcohol-licensing [Accessed 23 Mar. 2019].

The Brewery. (2018). Wet Hire or Dry Hire Venues? Advantages and Disadvantages. [online] Available at: https://www.thebrewery.co.uk/blog/choose-wet-hire-over-dry-hire-venue/ [Accessed 23 Mar. 2019].