Society of Cocktails returns to Jersey in November
Jason Butler’s private artist studio, 10 Commercial Buildings, St Helier
Friday 21 November to Saturday 6 December 2025
A tasting menu of borrowed moments…
Maybe you were there last year, sipping impossible cocktails, watching the shifting rooms, drinking your way through a story. Or maybe you are yet to step inside. Either way, the Memory Bar by Society of Cocktails experience is waiting to unfold.
Over 90 minutes, you’re invited to sip your way through original cocktail creations designed not just to taste extraordinary, but to transport you somewhere else entirely. With each specially curated drink the space around you transforms, transporting you to places both unfamiliar yet strangely yours.
“Like nothing we have ever experienced, or tasted before. Like stepping into a story with each sip.”
This is more than a bar. It’s a shifting archive of the funny, tender and surprising moments of community, served with high-concept drinks, elaborate garnishes, nostalgic glassware, small games, and just enough rule-breaking to keep you on your toes. The world outside will wait. Inside Memory Bar, you’ll be drinking inside a story.
Tickets include:
* A unique location (in central St Helier)
* Welcome drink
* Three handcrafted cocktail creations
* Multi-sensory set design of light, sound & scent
* Interactive storytelling woven into every glass
“Fast becoming an annual tradition for us - always different and always memorable - but get your tickets quick.”
Book your table here.
BOOKING INFORMATION
Memory Bar takes place at Jason Butler’s private artist studio, 10 Commercial Buildings, St Helier, with a very limited capacity. You book by table size for a specific chosen time slot. The run starts on Friday 21 November and ends Saturday 6 December (various dates).
Tickets available for groups of 2, 4, 6 or 8. On second release, we will include social tables so you can book individually and make some new friends by sharing the experience. Looking for group booking? Please contact us via info@arts.je (advance booking advised, as tables are sold on a first come first served basis).
Booking a table for 8? Pay for 7 and the organiser’s ticket is on us!
Society of Cocktails and ArtHouse Jersey
The Society of Cocktails is a collaborative shifting collective of artists, mixologists and creatives that has worked with ArtHouse Jersey to present uniquely designed immersive experiences with remarkable cocktail creations.
Designed by Creative Lead Thomas Buckley.
THE HUNTING OF THE WREN, 2024
From 13th to 21st December 2024 the acclaimed collective Society of Cocktails brought to Jersey a new cocktail and storytelling performance. Audiences were guided through folklore using bardic storytelling, audio hallucination and technology-trickery to journey through the Celtic winter tradition of 'the Hunting of the Wren'. People were tricked, entertained and... hunted.
The performances were sensory and intimate, offering a trail of ancient knowledge, inviting people at key points to solve problems, taste bizarre edible moments, all the while drawing them further into the re-imagined space of ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House.
Creative collaborators: Kate Phillips (Artist), Johnny Jones (Performer).
THE AURELIAN, 2023
For ‘The Aurelian’ The Society of Cocktails invited audiences to experience a blend of story, senses and entomology (the study of insects) in the cozy atmosphere of Greve de Lecq Barracks. Inspired by speculative fictions and magic realism, audiences experienced an uncanny hybrid of disgust and delight as the Society served courses of cocktails and comfit. This intimate immersive experience was a hybrid between art installation, theatre and supper club.
"Entomology and the collection of Moth and Butterfly species is a fascinating subject to explore. The Aurelian investigates themes of collecting, transformation and the uncanny." Artist, Thomas Buckley
MEMORY BAR, 2022
In 2022 Society of Cocktails presented ‘Memory Bar’ which saw guests enjoy a tasting menu of bespoke cocktails inspired by people’s real memories brought to life through a multisensory live-art performance. Guests are invited to spend an evening stepping into another person's life as sound, smell and taste offer up surprising twists on life stories collected from real people who live in Jersey.
These events were set amongst the immersive Recollect exhibition at ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House which used creativity and technology to bring to life the memories of a selection of Jersey’s elderly people. Memory Bar offered a new way of seeing how we might share our histories and understand ourselves as part of a wider community.
Creative collaborators: Kate Phillips (artist ), Renske van Vroonhoven (perfumer and scent designer), Sharon Clark (theatre director and writer) and Ned Lawlor (experimental mixologist).
ABOUT THE ARTIST THOMAS BUCKLEY
Thomas Buckley is an alumni fellow of The Royal Shakespeare Company who works as an artist and storyteller. Working in projection, immersive technologies (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, XR) and interactive installations, his work is often about using digital or XR outcomes to draw out our humanity.
The relationship between Thomas Buckley and ArtHouse Jersey has developed and strengthened over the years. Thomas was a participant in our 2019 Artist Lock In at Greve de Lecq Barracks. Our Producers were so excited about the work he was presenting that he was offered a research and development residency at the start of 2020, where he worked with a team of collaborators to develop his Memory Bar concept. When the COVID restrictions hit in the Spring of 2020 Thomas was commissioned to reshape his research to deliver something magical that could be delivered directly to people’s doors. The Memory Box project brought art and technology straight into the homes of the most isolated older people in our community.
