Pub & Beer Garden Lighting Ideas: A Guide for Hospitality Venues
Here’s a question worth asking before the next bank holiday rolls around: what time does your garden empty?
Because in most venues it isn’t last orders that clears the tables. It’s sunset. The sun dips, the space goes flat and grey, and everyone drifts inside to a room that’s already full. You’ve paid for that garden, furnished it and staffed it, and for a good chunk of the year you’re handing back the best hours of the evening.
Lighting is what stops that. Not the sort you’d buy for a back patio, mind. We’re talking about a proper scheme that shrugs off a Lancashire January, spans your whole seating area from one plug, and won’t make your electrician wince. So let’s get into it: zones, spans, systems, running costs, and which bits genuinely need a professional.
Why bother? The business case for lighting your outdoor space
The atmosphere is the bit your customers will notice. These are the bits your accountant will.
You trade for longer. A lit garden serves after dark, and that’s the whole argument, really. The space, the furniture and the staff are already paid for, so every hour you claw back after sunset is close to free money. It stretches your season, too: lighting won’t beat the British weather single-handed, but put it with cover and a bit of heat and suddenly September evenings are workable. Same again in April.
Nobody trips over. Steps, level changes, wonky flags, the path to the smoking area, the walk to the car park. Lit properly, they’re a non-event. Unlit, they’re an incident report and an insurance headache.
People stop and look. A glowing frontage or a canopy you can see from the road pulls punters off the pavement better than most of what you’ll spend on marketing this year. It reads as open, warm, worth a look before anyone’s clocked your A-board. And every customer who photographs your canopy and sticks it online is doing that marketing for free.
How to plan a beer garden lighting scheme (in 5 steps)
- Map your zones. Walk the space and mark what each bit is actually for: dining tables, standing and drinking, the servery hatch, walkways and steps, the planting round the edge. Each one wants something different. Flooding the whole lot with one even layer is the classic mistake: it looks like a car park, and it kills the very atmosphere you’re paying for.
- Find your power. Where are your outdoor sockets? Where’s the nearest safe supply to each zone? Do this before you fall in love with a layout, because it shapes everything. This is exactly where connectable lighting systems earn their money, because one plug can feed an awful lot of garden.
- Measure your spans. Tape measure out. Wall to wall, post to post, gable to fence. Add 10–15% for the drape, and make a note of anything over about 6 metres, because that’s where catenary wire needs to take the strain instead of your lights.
- Layer it up. Three layers is the rule of thumb: a canopy overhead (your festoon), something at or below eye level (post lights, wall lights, uplights in the planters), and a few accents like a lit tree, a lit sign or an archway. That’s the whole difference between “atmospheric” and merely “illuminated”.
- Sort your controls. Decide now how it goes on and off. A timer means it’s never blazing over an empty garden at 2am; a dimmer means one scheme covers a Sunday lunch and a Friday night. Both pay for themselves, and neither relies on anyone remembering.
The festoon canopy: the one thing to get right
If you only do one thing, do this. A festoon canopy above the seating is the look of a good beer garden: warm light dropping from overhead, at a height that flatters everyone sat underneath, with the bulbs themselves doing the decorating.
Two of our systems are built for exactly this job, and they are not the same thing.
ConnectPro® is our flagship connectable system, and the one we’d point most publicans at. It runs on the full 240V, uses a thick rubber cable, and the entire system is rated IP65. You can connect up to 950m, or 7,600 LEDs, from a single plug. It comes with a 2 year warranty. For a fixed installation that stays up through the winter, this is the spec.
FestoonPro® is our premium festoon system, and the one to choose when the bulbs are the design. Thick rubber cable, fully waterproof connections, rated IP55, and connectable up to 1,500m depending on your choice of belts and bulbs. The trick here is that the bulbs are replaceable: pick E27 screw or B22 bayonet, swap styles in and out of the belts whenever you fancy. None of our other festoons let you do that.
A word of warning, because this one catches people out: ConnectPro® and FestoonPro® are two separate, independent systems. Don’t mix them. The cables are different thicknesses and there may be compatibility issues, even though both run off the full 240V. Pick one per run.
On long spans: don’t hang a festoon on its own cable across an open gap and hope. We strongly advise catenary wire for festoon installations. Tension a steel wire between your fixings and hang the festoon from that. The wire carries the load and the weather; the lights just hang there looking good. It’s the difference between a taut, deliberate line in June and a sorry droop by August. Our guides on how to hang festoon lights and using catenary wire and festoon poles walk through the fixings and tensioning properly.
Have a browse of the full commercial festoon lights range for bulb styles and spacings.
Ideas by venue type
The beer garden
Festoon canopy over the tables, zoned by area rather than blanketed across everything. Post or bollard lights along the paths and steps. Uplights in the planting, or into a decent tree, to give the space a back wall of light. Otherwise you’ve built a lit island in a black field. Got a shelter, pergola or marquee? Run festoon along the internal ridge and you’ve doubled your usable canopy on a wet night.
The restaurant terrace
Lower, softer, more restrained. Diners want to see their food and each other and not much else. Dimmable festoon low over the tables, warm white, with wall lights defining the edges. The dimmer isn’t a nice-to-have: a 6pm cover and a 10pm cover are two completely different rooms.
The café frontage
This is retail, so treat it like retail. Light the shopfront, the awning line, the A-board. Festoon along the awning or across the frontage gives you the glow that pulls people off the pavement, and a lit window at dusk is a real trading advantage over the dark unit next door. Bonus: it carries through to Christmas without a rethink.
The bar or courtyard
Enclosed spaces let you be bolder. Criss-cross the festoon wall to wall for a proper canopy, uplight the brickwork, and play with colour if it suits your brand. With FestoonPro®’s replaceable bulbs, that’s a bulb decision rather than a system decision. Just keep the light off the walls at eye level so nobody’s squinting at their pint.
The event or wedding venue
Different job entirely: the space has to reconfigure. Modular systems come into their own when you’re building one scheme for a marquee, another for a barn and another for a lawn. Our venue and wedding commercial range is built around exactly that, and the Spring Cottage case study shows how it comes together on a real site.
The glampsite or campsite
Long runs between pitches, pods and facilities, usually with barely any supply points, which is precisely the problem 950m from a single plug was designed to solve. Sort the wayfinding to the shower block first, then the paths between pitches. Keep it warm and keep it low: your guests came for the dark sky.
ConnectGo®, ConnectPro® or FestoonPro®: which is right for your venue?
You’ve met ConnectPro® and FestoonPro® above. The third one is the one to rule out.
ConnectGo® is our low-voltage system, rated IP44, with battery, mains and even solar options. Brilliant for a domestic garden or lighter decorative use, but IP44 isn’t the spec you want holding up a trade space through February. For a venue, it’s ConnectPro® or FestoonPro®.
Between those two, the honest steer: if it’s going up permanently and taking whatever winter throws at it, ConnectPro®’s IP65 rating and 2 year warranty make it the safer spec. If the bulbs are the whole point of the look, FestoonPro® is your system, still commercial-grade rubber cable, just rated a step below.
Want the detail? IP ratings for lights explained covers what those numbers actually promise, what’s the difference between ConnectGo® and ConnectPro® does the head-to-head, and the ConnectPro® and FestoonPro® system overviews go component by component. Still torn? Which festoon is right for you? narrows it down in about two minutes.
Installation and electrical safety
Straight up, because this bit matters: a fixed 240V installation at a commercial premises should be designed, fitted and signed off by a qualified electrician. That’s not us being twitchy. It’s an occupied public space, it’s your insurance, and it’s your responsibility as the operator.
What a good install looks like:
- Proper fixings, and catenary wire on the spans. Loads go into structure, not into cable.
- Weatherproof connections. Any plug-and-socket junction living outdoors goes in an enclosure. A DRIBOX keeps the joint dry and still lets you get at it.
- Cable routed out of harm’s way. Nothing across a walkway, nothing a table, a bin round or a delivery can snag.
- RCD protection on the outdoor circuit, specified by your electrician.
- Controls somewhere sensible. Timers and switching behind the bar or in the cellar, not somewhere a customer can find them.
What will it cost to run?
Usually the first objection, and usually based on numbers from fifteen years ago.
Work it out from the bulb up. FestoonPro® sockets take up to 15W each and the starter cable handles 1,500W, but low-wattage LEDs are where most venues land. Run 60m of belt with 120 bulbs at 1.2W and that’s 144W for your whole canopy. Less than two old-fashioned lightbulbs, lighting the entire garden.
Multiply by your hours and your unit rate for a real figure.
Three things keep it down:
- LEDs, obviously. Low draw, and a long enough life that relamping stops being a job you think about.
- Dimmers. FestoonPro® works with compatible dimmers. The FL042 is a single-button affair, the FL068 comes with a remote. Running at 60% most of the evening trims consumption and, honestly, usually looks better anyway.
- Timers. The cheapest saving going. On at dusk, off at close, no human involvement required.
For the fuller picture, do outdoor lights use a lot of electricity? does the maths properly.
Buying at scale
Kitting out a venue is a different exercise from buying a set of lights, and it should be.
The warranty. Every ConnectPro® product carries a 2 year warranty. For something living outdoors permanently, that number tells you what we expect of it.
Trade pricing. A Festive Lights for Business account gets you exclusive trade pricing, which changes the sums on a full fit-out and on the repeat orders when you extend the garden, do the terrace, or light the whole lot again come December.
An actual human. Send the Business Team your measurements, your power positions and a couple of photos. They’ll spec the run, list the components, and tell you straight if you need less than you think.
FAQ
What lighting is best for a pub or beer garden?
A festoon canopy over the seating, layered with path and step lighting and a few accent uplights. For a permanent commercial install, specify a mains system built for it: ConnectPro® for the most robust year-round spec, FestoonPro® where you want a particular bulb and the option to swap it.
Are commercial festoon lights weatherproof enough to leave up all year?
The right ones, yes. ConnectPro® is rated IP65 across the whole system, with thick rubber cable and a 2 year warranty, which is exactly what it’s designed for. FestoonPro® is rated IP55 with waterproof connections and the same quality rubber cable. Either way: keep every outdoor connection in a weatherproof enclosure, and give the run a once-over each spring.
How far can connectable festoon lights span from one power source?
ConnectPro® connects up to 950m, or 7,600 LEDs, from a single plug. FestoonPro® goes up to 1,500m depending on your belts and bulbs. The real limit there is wattage, not distance: the starter cable handles 1,500W and each socket takes up to 15W, so low-wattage bulbs get you much further. Most beer gardens use a fraction of either.
Can I mix ConnectPro® and FestoonPro®?
No. They’re two separate, independent systems and we don’t advise mixing the products or accessories. The cables differ in thickness and there may be compatibility issues, despite both running off 240V. Choose one system per run.
Do I need an electrician to install outdoor mains lighting at my venue?
For a fixed 240V install at commercial premises, yes. It should be fitted and signed off by a qualified electrician. Temporary plug-in arrangements are a different matter, but anything permanent, routed through the building, or in a public area should be done properly and certificated.
How much do commercial festoon lights cost to run?
Less than you’d think. Bulb wattage × bulb count × hours × your unit rate. A 120-bulb canopy of 1.2W LEDs draws around 144W. Dimmers and timers bring it down further.
Should I use catenary wire?
Yes, we strongly advise it for festoon installations. It takes the load off the cable and stops the sag.
Can I get trade pricing or buy in bulk?
Yes. Open a Festive Lights for Business account for exclusive trade pricing, or ring the Business Team to spec a project.
Light the space you’ve already paid for
A beer garden that trades after dark is the cheapest set of extra covers you’ll ever add. Get the canopy right, get the spec right, get an electrician in, and then it just gets on with it, season after season.
So, what time does your garden empty?
Open a Festive Lights for Business account for trade pricing, or call the Business Team on and we’ll work through it with you: measurements, power, spans, the lot.
Written by Amy Brennan