Tier 2 loophole has pubs offering live music tickets to allow drink without food

Virgin Radio

9 Dec 2020, 11:44

The loophole is based on a new technicality that was added to help struggling music venues.

It's been discovered that some pubs in Tier 2 are offering live music tickets, to avoid the "substantial meal" requirement elsewhere that means drinkers must buy food.

Pubs have been found posting on social media trying to attract people back to the venues to save their business.

One such pub, The Horns, in Watford, wrote on Facebook: “We will be ticketing Friday, Saturday, Sunday live music events for £3,”

“This also means we CAN SERVE YOU ALCOHOL WITHOUT FOOD at any of our weekends gigs. Tickets will be sold on the door on a first come first serve basis.”

It comes as businesses are also sharing how much food is being wasted by people ordering just to get a drink.

The Tier 2 guidance says the substantial food requirement “does not apply where alcohol is being provided to a customer at a cinema, theatre, concert hall or sportsground.”

It details that alcohol must be “ordered by, and served to, a customer who has a ticket for an exhibition of a film, a performance or an event of training or competition at the venue, to consume in the area where the audience is seated to watch the exhibition, performance or event.”

The original rules said that booze could only be served as part of a “substantial” meal, leading to much debate over what that actually means. 

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