Keep Calm And Garden Party On

Keep calm and garden party

The menu of things to do this summer for the average Briton this year is reduced. It’s like the restaurant equivalent of just the lunch specials. You may be aware that the full menu is eight pages long and includes greater experiences, but most of these delights are denied to you. We’re British though right? We work with what we’ve got and it would seem those lucky enough to have access to a garden are working with that.

According to research, while the Queen has had to cancel hers (in virus-free times, she has around 8000 guests per party), the garden party is very much alive and well in the UK.

Sausages on the barbie and summer cocktails top the list of esentials for the perfect garden party.

Garden parties became fashionable in the 1860s, during the reign of Queen Victoria. They were a way for the upper classes to mingle.  Turns out it can also be a way to mingle in a more spread out fashion. As many as 71 percent of those surveyed feel the garden party is more popular this year because it is easier to socially distance, while 50 percent feel they have been cooped up for so long, they want to enjoy sitting in the garden with friends. 

But what constitutes a good old fashioned garden party? Is it the same as a barbeque, do those catering lines blur a little? Well, according to the survey, yes – BBQ sausages are the number one party essential, with over half the people surveyed listing them. There are however, certain things that really do feel so quintessentially British summer garden; Finger sandwiches (notably cucumber), potato salad, Victoria sponge cake on a cake stand, quiche, salmon, scotch eggs and pavlova for example. Add some bunting and a game of rounders and you’re practically ready to invite Kate and Wills.

Fancy a bit of traditional British garden party fun this summer? These survey results are a great checklist:

25 MODERN GARDEN PARTY ESSENTIALS 

  1. Sausages on the BBQ (51 percent) 
  2. Summer cocktails (41 percent) 
  3. Finger sandwiches (35 percent) 
  4. Blankets for when it gets cold (34 percent) 
  5. Gin and Tonics (33 percent) 
  6. Potato salad (31 percent) 
  7. Fire pits (30 percent) 
  8. Fairy lights / lanterns (30 percent) 
  9. A classic Victoria sponge cake (27 percent) 
  10. Scotch eggs (26 percent) 
  11. Quiche Lorraine (25 percent) 
  12. A gazebo (24 percent) 
  13. Pasta salad (23 percent) 
  14. Bunting (20 percent) 
  15. Takeaway pizza (18 percent) 
  16. Trestle tables (17 percent) 
  17. Cucumber sandwiches (15 percent) 
  18. Homemade lemonade (15 percent) 
  19. Outdoor speakers (15 percent) 
  20. A cake-stand (14 percent) 
  21. Pavlova (11 percent) 
  22. Games of rounders (9 percent) 
  23. A whole poached salmon (7 percent) 
  24. DJ decks (7 percent) 
  25. Outdoor cinema screen (7 percent) 

Francis Debeuckelaere at Bacardi who commissioned the survey as part of their #RaiseYourSpirits initiative said “People will be enjoying socialising in gardens, parks and on beaches more than ever before, this summer”. 

So, why not grab a crustless cucumber sarnie, raise those little pinkie fingers and garden party like its …2020?

  • Jackie Wilson

    Jackie started writing for Belle on her return to the UK after 3 years living in Kuala Lumpur. Formerly a Marketing Manager of British institutions such as Cathedral City Cheddar and Twinings Tea, she wrote columns and web content in KL for several local and expat magazines and sites and was a contributing author for the book Knocked Up Abroad. Jackie is now back on the expat beat living in Cincinatti, USA where she is engaged in a feast of writing projects while desperately clinging to her children’s British accents and curiously observing the American way.

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