NIGHTCLUB and bar closures as a result of the Island’s Good Friday ‘no dancing’ rule ‘pummelled’ businesses, a bar owner has said.
Under Jersey’s licensing legislation enacted in 1974, on two days of the year – Good Friday and Christmas Day – nightclubs are banned from playing music or allowing people to dance.
Chris Tanguy, who owns Tanguy’s bar, said: ‘Not opening on Thursday and Friday pummelled me for the whole week. It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t happen in England.’
Meanwhile, Mark Taft – the owner of Channel Islands Liquor Company and La Bastille – recently said the rule should ‘definitely’ be scrapped as part of Deputy Kirsten Morel’s upcoming licensing law review.
He said: ‘We normally have a DJ on a Friday and Saturday night, which of course we weren’t allowed to have.
‘We even took it to the extreme that we actually didn’t play music at all. The fact that you can’t dance on a Friday is just absolutely ridiculous. The whole licensing law needs looking at.’
He added: ‘In the past, bank holidays were a good earner for us, but now I generally try to close on a bank holiday. With staff costs, import duty, and the strict regulations on alcohol promotions, it is usually not worth opening. Quite frankly, hospitality is dead.’
Gavin Reid, the managing director of Randalls, previously said the ‘no dancing’ rule is ‘part of this wider issue that businesses are operating under an archaic and old-fashioned law which needs to be brought in line with modern practices.’
