Revellers toasted the first weekend of freedom in months by downing six million pints of beer today in a sun-soaked splurge of socialising.
Drinkers formed queues outside beer gardens, with many staying on to watch the FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Manchester City on jumbo outdoor screens.
High streets were busy too, and Joshua Bamfield of the Centre for Retail Research estimated 18.4million shoppers would spend £1.6billion in stores this weekend.
That is still down on pre-pandemic levels when shoppers spent around £2billion on average. What do you think of this story?
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