There’s an important fight for music venues taking place in England right now, with the threatened closure of an iconic Manchester venue.

The independent Night & Day Cafe in the city’s bustling Northern Quarter fell foul of a noise complaint last week. The shocking thing? It was literally only one new resident that voiced their frustration at the venue.

That was enough for Manchester City Council to issue a noise abatement notice to Night & Day, which in turn led to fierce condemnation of their decision.

Thankfully, a Change.org petition was created last week to fight against the possibility of Night & Day’s closure. “Over the past few months we’ve been really encouraged by having live music events on six nights a week – back to what it was pre-covid,” the petition states.

“During lockdown a new resident moved to Manchester and to a property that’s within close proximity to the venue. As the restrictions lifted and life retuned to the surrounding Northern Quarter area, we were able to put on our first live music event.

The resident visited us next day and has since reported us to MCC a number of times. We have met the resident a number of times to explain what we do and that nothing has changed operationally to how we operated pre-lock down and the 28 years prior to that.”

The petition notes that nothing is being done about the “ill-considered planning and construction” of housing that’s directly beside the venue. “We also ask not to be labelled us as a ‘nuisance’,” it continues. “We believe we are a real cultural asset to the city of Manchester, the North West and indirectly to the UK as a whole. We believe we are a key part of Manchester and are very proud of what we do and have acheived.

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During lockdown, we were fortunate to receive Arts Council funding for being recognised as a place of cultural significance and also an Expanded Additional Restrictions Grant for Cultural and Entertainment value from Manchester City Council.”

Opening in November 1991, Night & Day was proudly about to mark its landmark 30th anniversary; now a threatening cloud hangs over the celebrations.

As many supporters pointed out on social media, don’t move directly beside a well-known music venue and expect it to be peaceful and quiet. The Night & Day situation sadly mirrors what Sydney’s Enmore Theatre had to go through too many times.

That’s why music fans in Sydney were so grateful when it became protected earlier this year after state government legislation was passed to declare Enmore Road and its theatre a “special entertainment precinct.”

At the time of writing, the Night & Day Change.org petition just under 60,000 signatures – if it gets to its target of 75,000, it will become one of the top signed petitions on the website. With the music industry battling to return to normality after the stifling last two years, pernickety nuisances like this noise complaint are unnecessary and unneeded.

Sign the petition to help the beloved Manchester venue here.

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