Night & Day: Further noise testing for Manchester music venue

The venue is a cafe bar during the day and a music venue in the evening

More acoustic tests will be carried out at a music venue that is under threat after a complaint about noise levels.

Owners of Night & Day Café in Manchester have appealed against a noise abatement notice served by Manchester City Council in 2021.

The complaint was from residents of a nearby flat, who have since moved out.

A spokesperson for the venue, part of Manchester's music scene since the early 1990s, said: "It feels like we're going backwards over old ground."

Night and Day has hosted a wide array of well-known bands as they rose to fame, including Elbow, Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and Kasabian.

Several court hearings have already taken place over the noise issue, with the case repeatedly adjourned.

At a hearing on Friday, at Manchester Magistrates' Court (MMC), it was agreed that additional testing of sound levels would take place by 3 September.

If an agreement is not reached after that, the case will return to court next year, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'Over old ground'

A spokesperson for Night and Day said it had attended many meetings "with a positive and constructive manner, in the hope of moving things forward.

"Unfortunately, the council has asked for yet another round of acoustic testing. It feels like we're going backwards over old ground," they said.

"We don't understand why testing didn't happen during the planning stage - 20 ago before anyone moved into the apartments and why there was no discussion with MMC before the abatement notice was served on us in 2021."

A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said: "We remain entirely committed to reaching an agreement that recognises the needs of residents, allows us to meet our legal obligations and allows the venue to remain commercially viable."