Booming pub where the party doesn't stop 'until the last person leaves'

Yahoo

29-03-2025

A beloved Aintree pub is gearing up for its annual party weekend for the Grand National next week - and the 2025 event will mark 10 years of booming after-parties. The Queens Arms is based on Warbreck Moor, just a five-minute walk from the action of the races at Aintree Racecourse.
Speaking to the ECHO, pub manager Erin Johnson, 25, explained she has taken over the running of the pub in 2024 and is trying to put her own stamp on the venue. Erin said: "I've worked here on and off for about eight years now under different management until I took over last year. It's the locals and customers that have kept me here all this time. I've worked in many pubs and nowhere else feels like it, I don't know what it is - it just keeps pulling me back in."
She added: "I think it's the type of people who come in - we've got a really good community, everyone knows everyone and it still feels like a community pub which a lot of places have lost over the years. I've got regulars that have been coming in since before I was born, they've drank here for the last 30 or 40 years. They've seen it change a number of times.
READ MORE: I visited the 'best place to live in the UK' just 20 miles from Liverpool, and now I'm packing my bags
READ MORE: I tried Morrisons £15 Mother's Day afternoon tea and was less than impressed
"Since I took over I've tried to start introducing a few different things into the pub, a lot of ticketed events as well. We try and do makers' markets in the summer months."
But it's not just live entertainment that Erin has brought to The Queens Arms - she takes the pub's role within the community seriously and wants to make sure she is giving back with charity outreach efforts. She said: "Every Monday I provide free food for the local community - people can come in and get a warm meal at 7pm if they need it.
"We have a free pool and a free jukebox and darts and board games. You don't have to come for a drink, you can come for the company. A pub doesn't have to be focused around drinking but it has to be focused around community. You can come to have a chat and a hot meal - we're trying to build a village back."
And while The Queens Arms caters to its locals and regulars almost every week of the year, there's one week that stands out as the busiest, loudest and most exciting of all, when the venue is flooded by a sea of racegoers who make it their base for the duration of the Grand National.
The Queens Arms has been hosting an unofficial after party for each day of the races for a decade - and in that time they've seen everything from sports stars partying inside their giant marquee to huge conga lines dancing around the venue. Erin said: "We have a big marquee that takes over the entire car park, we get an extra two bars put in place, one in the beer garden and one in the tent. We have acts on beforehand - this year we've got two local drag queens coming down to do the build up to the races outside, then inside we have In Demand radio, they're setting up inside and interviewing some racegoers.
"It's free through the door and then we have the party after the races. We have a brilliant atmosphere, we even have people saying to us it's better than inside the races, because by that point everyone is having a laugh. We've got videos of the whole tent doing the conga - everyone gets involved.
"We used to only do the marquee but we have introduced a live act inside the pub now so people have a bit of choice. Outside we have a DJ, saxophone player, vocalist and bongos. Then inside we have a DJ. It goes on until the last person leaves - we can keep outside going until 10pm and inside until 1am.
"When people have done okay [betting on the racing] they're especially generous to the bar staff, it makes such a difference to them because it's such a hectic weekend but the staff love working it."
And while the pub is transformed into a party destination for the duration of the races, Erin still wants to make sure her loyal regulars know they remain at the heart of everything she does, which is why she has decided to put on a special event for local customers in the Grand National party marquee once all the excitement of the races has died down.
She said: "What we try and do is give the regulars a big weekend for themselves after it all calms down to say thank you to them. Prior managers have done buffets and stuff but I'm keeping the big marquee that we have this year until Easter weekend and throwing a family fun day for free. It's something for the locals to enjoy as well, not just the National."