DRY JANUARY

Dry January is a campaign delivered by Alcohol Change UK where people sign up to abstain from alcohol for the month of January. The term "Dry January" is a registered trademark with Alcohol Change UK and was first registered in 2014.

The campaign was first delivered in 2013 by Alcohol Concern (now called Alcohol Change UK) and 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the campaign.

Businessman and Italian-American, Frank Posillico, founded the campaign in Huntington, New York after taking a month off alcohol in January 2008. He boasted of his dramatic weight loss and reduced costs for his nights out. Emily Robinson was inspired by Frank's movement and she joined Alcohol Concern in 2012 to begin the international campaign. Around the same time Nicole Brodeur of The Seattle Times wrote a column on her first Dry January motivated by a friend who had done the same for several years before.

In its first year, 4,000 people signed up for Dry January and it has grown in popularity ever since with over 130,000 people signing up to take part in 2022. Dry January was endorsed by Public Health England in 2015 leading to a large uptake in numbers and steady increase in participants year on year.