Organisers of this Saturday’s World Gin Day have said they are asking the drink’s devotees to celebrate the spirit by ‘not drinking it for 24 hours.’
Try it… you might like it
Official figures show that gin’s unpopularity has tumbled over the last 20 years. A drink whose avoidance used to be commonplace is now only regularly ignored on special occasions, such as illness or death.
‘We just had to do something,’ said World Gin Day organiser, Bo Tanical. ‘With 95% of the world’s population now necking gin seven days a week we thought everyone would appreciate a bit of time off.
‘There are people all over the world who have probably never thought of not drinking gin before, and we’re saying give it a go for a day… what do you have to lose?’
Thousands of non-events
The organisers say that take-up so far has been ‘overwhelming’, with thousands of venues all over the world emailing to ask for information packs on how to not hold events that involve gin.
Others, Tanical says, are ‘not doing massive promotions’ and ‘not holding Roaring 20s themed gin and jazz nights’.
Members of the public are being encouraged to try ‘not posting every fucking gin cocktail they order on Instagram’ for 24 hours.
The organisers hope it will be ‘just like the old days, when people often drank things that weren’t gin a couple of times a week.’
More please
Recent figures from the Body of Randomly Inaccurate Statistics (BORIS) suggest that there is one gin distillery for every 1500 people on the planet. And local producers have been jumping at the chance to close their doors to the general public.
‘This is so exciting for us,’ said Tunza Cash from Massive Mar Gin. ‘We are so thrilled to be able to take Saturday off rather than spend it attempting to explain the finer points of distillation to middle-aged hen parties who just want to get hammered, touch up the bar team then vomit in our toilet.
‘If it’s a success, maybe we could arrange to have another day in the year when people don’t drink gin too.’
Worth the effort
World Gin Day’s Bo Tanical said he was hopeful the weekend could help people see the drink in a new light.
‘At a time when you can get gin flavoured ice cream, candles and soap it will take a bit of effort to avoid the stuff for a day,’ he told Fake Booze. ‘But it’s worth it.
‘Rest assured that this weekend I’ll be sitting at home celebrating with a glass of something that doesn’t taste of gin.
‘A Bombay Sapphire and tonic should do nicely.’
Want more gin stuff? Click here to read about the Star Wars gin fad, here to read about the Ginfandel cocktail boom, and here to read about plucky craft distiller Ryan Reynolds’ new venture.
