Published: 18 March 2016
Q: We have a requirement on our licence that requires all doors and windows to be shut whilst live music is being played. This condition was on the licence when we bought the pub. We have a live band regularly on a Saturday night and with the weather starting to improve and because we do not have air conditioning I can see that we are going to want to open the windows shortly. Someone has told me that we are able to ignore this condition. Is this correct?
A Under the Live Music Act 2012 this condition does not apply where live music is being played to an audience of up to 500 people between 08:00 and 23:00 provided you are open and selling alcohol. This does not however mean that you should flagrantly ignore the level at which music is played since it would always be open for someone to make a complaint to the Environmental Health Officer who has a number of weapons in their arsenal to take action such as serving a Noise Abatement Notice should the level of the music being played cause a statutory nuisance or you could face a review of your licence. So yes you do not have to have the doors and windows closed but be careful!
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