North and north-east pub bosses are looking forward to an improved atmosphere in their premises with the removal of a ban on background music.
News of the music ban being lifted initially broke on Wednesday evening after an email from Aberdeen City Council was circulated to hospitality venues across the Granite City and subsequently posted on social media.
The Scottish Government has now officially lifted the countrywide ban from Saturday.
A statement said: “From this Saturday, hospitality venues across Scotland will be able to play low level background sound again, including music and other audio.
“Guidance has been published to ensure all background sound is played at the appropriate volume.”
Many hospitality bosses across the north and north-east deemed the ban on music a “ridiculous” measure and campaigners have argued against it for months.
One Aberdeen nightspot, Cheerz, shut up shop saying that trading wasn’t viable when it was in place.
Night-Time Industries Association (NTIA) had launched a petition calling for the ban to be overturned, citing there was no evidence to support the theory that low-level music increased the transmission of Covid-19.
Scotland’s ban on music is believed to be the only of its kind across the world.
Owner of Highlands-based Cru Holdings, Scott Murray, had previously described the measure as the biggest risk to the hospitality sector’s recovery.
He said: “This is hugely welcomed news, anyone who has been in the pub in the last three months will agree at how odd the atmosphere has been, it is going to have a hugely positive effect especially at this time of year.
“The music ban had created an environment where people began talking closer to one another so that they wouldn’t be overheard, it has taken them this long to understand that.”
Grassroots music venue Krakatoa, in Aberdeen, has been closed since March but said the decision is a step in the right direction.
Craig Adams, of the venue, said: “There is not much point in a bar like ours opening without background music, we exist purely to put on live music.
“Everything we do is just a means of supporting that activity and be a grassroots music venue.”
Aberdeen City Council co-leader Douglas Lumsden added: “We have always got to be mindful that, even though we see the lifting of these rules, infection rates are still creeping upwards.
“Just because things are being lifted doesn’t mean we are at the end of it – and we have to continue to be extra vigilant.”
