Bay of Plenty's nightlife resuming cannot come soon enough, bar owners say

Nightlife can soon resume as normal bringing excitement to the hospitality industry. Photo / File

The drop to level 1 cannot come soon enough for Tauranga bar owners who say they are more than ready for dancing patrons and fostering musicians.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed on Wednesday that once the decision is made to move to alert level 1, all social distancing restrictions at bars, restaurants, churches and sports stadiums, community sporting events and funerals would be lifted.

Strict border controls would still be in force, she said.

Ardern also unveiled her 10 gold rules of alert level 1, which included keeping track of where people had been and isolating immediately if told to do so by authorities.

Cabinet would review the alert level status on Monday.

Voodoo Lounge owner Ross Te Paa said it was a sensible move to make following almost two weeks without any new Covid-19 cases.

"The country has managed to contain it, and we have all done a good job at keeping those numbers right down so personally, I am really excited about dropping down to level one and getting back into the swing of things."

It had been difficult to employ a musician or DJ when their role was to make people dance, Te Paa said, but he was looking forward to supporting what he considered a vibrant and talented community of musicians in the Bay.

"There have been a lot of musicians who have been out of work because of this and there is a massive amount of talent in this town, so it will be nice to get that camaraderie and community up again.

"The hospitality industry has suffered immensely because of this, we have suffered a dramatic financial loss, so the sooner we drop to level one, the sooner we can have a bit of a boogie."

Mount Social Club owner Lucas Fleury is excited to start living up to the bars name again. Photo / File

Mount Social Club owner Lucas Fleury said he was looking forward to living up to the bar's name and being social again.

"We tried to do the best we could to adapt what we were already doing for Covid-19. One thing that was very key was to hire musicians again because a lot of them have no work.

"So as soon as we opened we did have music like we used to but we had our DJs in a much more chill environment, like a lounge setting where people could be drinking and sitting down."

Fleury said while it was at times labouring, serving seated patrons was the Social Club's business model, so it was good practice.

"But if there was no more room to sit, then we couldn't allow people into the venue anymore so we are excited about level one coming."