Revellers celebrate first Friday night since Freedom Day with parties in ...

Thousands of partygoers have celebrated the first Friday night of freedom in clubs and bars since restrictions were lifted earlier this week.   

In major party hubs across the UK, from London to Liverpool to Leeds, tens of thousands of young people descended on packed - and sold out - events on Friday night.

Pictures taken at the stroke of midnight show huge queues forming outside venues in Newcastle, and hundreds of young people partying in Portsmouth. 

Approximately 100,000 punters are expected to let their hair down across the country as partygoers dance the night away without major Covid restrictions for the first time in 16 months. 

It comes as NHS England figures showed one in three 18-to-29 year olds have still not had a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine - despite the virus running rampant in this age group, with more than one in 100 aged 20 to 29 testing positive last week.

Around three million young adults in the UK are yet to be vaccinated, even though all over-18s have been eligible since June 18.

Public Health England earlier this week revealed that case rates among those in their 20s are higher than in any age group since the pandemic began.

Furious hospitality chiefs, MPs and civil liberties campaigners have slammed Boris Johnson's plans to make vaccine passports compulsory in clubs come September. 

And with fears growing of a staffing crisis in pubs, clubs and bars, sparked by the record-breaking number of alerts sent to workers thanks to the 'pingdemic', hospitality staff will not be exempt from self-isolation rules despite major concerns from industry leaders. 

Venues are gearing up to host thousands inside packed - and largely sold out - clubs, pubs and bars across the nation throughout the week after most legal restrictions on contact were eased on 'Freedom Day'.

Several club nights advertised the long-awaited return of freedoms, such as face coverings no longer being required and social distancing measures shelved - with many setting lofty targets of pulling in more than 1,000 patrons a night.

On popular online ticket selling platforms such as Fatsoma and Eventbrite, there are over 200 clubbing events lined up in big party cities across the UK, including London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds. 

Partygoers can expect a big night out every day this week, with event planners desperately organising over 200 events in major party cities in the UK - as they hope to pile in as many punters as possible to make up for lost revenue over the last 16 months.

Using numbers shared on ticket sales websites, there could be close to 70,000 revellers enjoying club nights in major party hubs across the UK if the venues operate at full capacity and can attract punters in droves.   

But, fears persist over the lingering threat of Covid passports and potential impact of the so-called 'pingdemic' - with more than 1.7m people understood to be self-isolating at present.