More than 150 people turned up to enjoy the reopening of an Aberdeen nightclub when restrictions eased at midnight.
Cheerz on Exchange Street was the first city-centre club to welcome back customers after being closed for 17 months – with a classic night of cheesy tunes and dancing.
George Mckenzie, operations and premises manager at Cheerz, said the first night back was “amazing” with more people than expected returning to the clubbing scene the first chance they got.
He said: “It was amazing really, I couldn’t have asked for a better turnout from people. It was really busy, honestly I underestimated how busy it was going to be.
“We had a free ticket available to book online so we could have an estimate for staffing, but I think at some points in the night we had about 150 to 180 people turn up.
“Everybody loved it and the crowd was going mental on the dancefloor. People were getting back to me saying it was a great night and they’re so glad restrictions have now eased.”
A trial run
Cheerz nightclub reopened its doors when the restrictions eased at midnight, which allowed for two hours of clubbing while staff got a preview of how clubs will be operating in the new normal.
“Last night was always about a trial run for me. I wasn’t initially going to be opening the club last night and was instead going to save it for our big event on Friday 13, but then decided it would be a good chance to see how everything would work.
“We have some new staff and some who hadn’t been back for a while, and we had also reconfigured the bar area. We realised last night that there is some stuff we need to change and now we can make that better for the weekend.
“After last night we have some time to settle and then we’re going back to normal with our usual seven nights of entertainment. For our big relaunch event on Friday we have two drag queens and a DJ lined up.
“It’s pretty much sold out with only about 20 tickets left out of 300.”
Other nightclubs across Aberdeen will be gradually reopening throughout the week but will look a bit different to what they did pre-pandemic.
Social distancing rules have now been lifted but club customers will still need to bring along a face mask and check in to the venue via Track and Trace.
Mr Mckenzie added: “The staff all have to wear face masks, but customers don’t need to all the time, following the rule of the three Ds they can be removed when dancing, drinking and dining.”