Has COVID-19 changed Manchester nightlife forever?

A Thursday quiz night down the pub, a Friday night pint before the commute home from the office, a restless Saturday night spent dancing in an overcrowded club – those pre-COVID nights seem like a distance memory. The majority of us have had no choice but to find our entertainment through zoom calls, family quiz nights and downing pints.

Manchester is one of the UK’s major cities, renowned for its wild nightlife. With the Northern Quarter home to quirky bars and traditional pubs, Spinningfields adding a drop of class to the city with bars like the Alchemist and Deansgate with some of Manchester’s trendiest clubs for a Saturday night dance.

As the COVID-19 global pandemic continues and the second national lockdown was announced from a5thNovember, Manchester’s nightlife is suffering. The city’s economy was shut down almost instantly twice now, this has meant the hospitality industry is facing an unprecedented challenge.

The hospitality industry is slowly recovering from the strategies put in place to control the spread of the virus however, the crisis continues to have a profound impact on how pubs, bars and restaurants operate. Hospitality businesses have made substantial changes to their venues in order to make sure staff and customers are safe and healthy and safety guidelines are followed.

American dive bar ‘Bunny Jacksons’ is situated on Jack Rosenthal Street in the city centre serving cold beers, frozen cocktails, whisky, but is best known for its 20p chicken wings. Since the lifting of the first national lockdown in July, Bunny Jacksons have been following the restrictions announced by the government to follow all social distancing restrictions and sanitising rules, but some of these are affecting its usual rock and roll atmosphere.

An employee from Bunny Jacksons said:

“Before lockdown, as we’re a dive bar, we were a free-for-all – with orders taking place at the bar. Thanks to COVID-19, that had to stop in place of contactless and QR payments”.

“We had to make a number of changes, putting screens and dividing walls between tables and booths. We also had to tweak the menu to get people in earlier”.

The usually lively dive bar has suffered from the government-imposed limitations on how loud it can play its music and banning of live entertainment, changing the whole atmosphere of the venue.

“We’ve been reasonably lucky that our customers are loyal to us and still came through, but… we couldn’t get everyone in that we normally could”. He continued.

“The social distancing element has robbed us of some of the mayhem we usually enjoy”. He added.

Quirky cocktail bar The Font Manchester have tried to embraced the positive aspects that COVID-19 has brought to the way it has to operate.

Jude Wainwright, Creative Director of The Font Bar Manchester explained how they have tried to stay positive: “...of course, we’ve been affected by everything but we’ve really tried not to moan or harp on about how ’tough it is for us’ when there are people in far worse situations than us right now”. She said.

The Font developed a free app for customers to make orders on, a system that was not in place before and was rushed back in as it wasn’t set up before – it has proved a hit with both staff and customers.

“… the new technology has been great. We’re happy to do whatever is asked of us if it means we can get back to a normality quicker.”

The app allows customers to order food and drink to their table, ‘Font Points’ can be earned every purchase, for every £1 spent you’ll earn 10 points. ‘Font Points’ can then be exchanged for free treats. The Font is now offering a click and collect service for cocktails, shots, sweets and party packs on Friday’s and Saturdays 4pm-10pm, delivery is also available via Deliveroo.

The biggest impact of COVID-19 has sadly been on staff members of The Font. Jude explained: “…the biggest impact has been mentally. It’s been quite difficult having to adapt so quicky and so often, new rules coming in all the time.”

Adapting to the new rules hasn’t been easy for everyone, especially nightclubs that rely on the late-night atmosphere of loud music and boozy dancefloors, the impacts have been catastrophic.

Manchester’s iconic nightclub 42s has recently announced it struggling financially and risks closure as the second lockdown came into place. The indie-rock club has been serving cans of red stripe on Bootle Street for decades and have now launched a crowdfunding campaign to avoid closure.

Bethany Walker, a bar attendant at 42s said: “Anyone who has ever been to 42s knows that it’s atmosphere is very unique and unfortunately, while the atmosphere is still close to what it was, it cannot be the same until we’re allowed to open in the same way we used to.”

“A lot, if not all, of our staff have been hugely affected by COVID. It’s a huge change to the consistent shifts we worked before COVID and the job we started doing compared to what we have to do now”. Bethany explained.

42s originally held several hundred people at any one time, however when the social distancing restrictions were put into place customers had to be seated and the club could only fit around 30 tables of anywhere between two to six people on each.

“Within the club itself we had to implement a range of new rules to adhere to COVID safety guidelines, including a one-way system, table service, no mixing tables, six people per table, and more stringent cleaning of the club”. She said.

Despite efforts to switch up the menu by serving a wider variety of drinks such as cocktails to create a more bar-like setting and encouraging customers to make reservations due to the smaller capacity, 42s had to close its door when Manchester went into tier 3 restriction zone.

The future of Manchester’s nightlife is scarily uncertain. There has been a clear rise in illegal events around the UK in and out of lockdown, as the younger generations especially grow impatient. Music and dancing are a huge part of Manchester’s respect culture. Will this be the return of the illegal rave scene?

“I really hope that we are able to return to how we ran before COVID before long as the way the hospitality industry is running at the moment is simply unsustainable for much longer, not just for 42s but for hospitality as a whole”. Bethany reflected.

#sav42s Crowdfunder - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save42s