An Ayr nightclub says vaccine passport checks will cause midnight mayhem for staff and customers.
Venue38 has told how they face having to shut off their dance floor and turning the lights on to allow checks before gigs can resume at 12am each night.
The vaccine passport system was launched on Friday, October 1 but thousands of people were left unable to access the app required to download the official medical certificate.
As a result, bosses decided to close the Carrick Street venue at 12am on Saturday, October 2 to avoid any confusion for revellers attending a grassroots gig.
Bosses Tracy-Anne McGregor and James Bunten have been left baffled on how to enforce the new requirements introduced.
Instead, they want Covid testing to be carried out for their big events with George Bowie’s GBX scheduled for next month.
Now they fear an outbreak of Covid-19 is still possible with double-vaxxed punters still able to catch the virus.
Tracy-Anne told Ayrshire Live: “The guidelines are absolutely preposterous.
“It’s put us in a position where we have to start checking their passports at 8pm regardless of if they want to stay beyond 12 or not. It’s either that or stop the music.
“At 8pm we can let everybody in and they can do whatever they want until midnight. At midnight, we are supposed to check everyone’s Covid vaccine status.
“We have to close off our dance floor, that is one of the requirements; that only people on your dance floor after midnight are double vaccinated.
“So in theory we will have to stop what we are doing at midnight and put on all the lights and start going round everyone checking them. If you are not double vaccinated then you will be told to leave.
“And it doesn’t matter how many people are in, I could have 200 in, everyone has to be checked if they haven’t already been checked.
“We are open from 12pm most days, we could have gigs or events in the afternoon with people on the dance floor but none of them need the same certificate that those who are on the same dance floor at 12am do.”
Tracy-Anne hoped a form of testing would be required at gigs to allow staff and customers to be reassured that the virus isn’t prevalent.
She added: “We advocated for testing at the door.
"Why not allow us to do lateral flow testing at the door? Or PCR tests to be even more accurate? Then we would know that people coming into our club are negative.
“We could allow 200 people who have Covid but they are double vaccinated.
“We have already seen that being double vaccinated doesn’t stop you getting Covid or even stop you from becoming ill.”
Venue38, a member of the Music Venue Trust, said it was not surprised by the app issues on launch day after being part of meetings with other industry players who say the scheme is ‘not fit for purpose’.
Tracy said: “We knew the app was coming out and there would be serious issues with it.
"We decided to close tonight at midnight, we have a licence until 2.30am but with the issues the app is having we are not sure if anyone would even turn up if we opened past midnight.
“But we have scant details as much as the next venue has, there has been no consultation with businesses.
“We still have no idea how it will be fully enforced but we will just have to try our best and adapt. It’s been another blow for the industry.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We have had extensive discussions with stakeholders over the last month and introduced the grace period in response to their feedback to allow the system to be tested.
"We have also provided detailed guidance for venues and the public which we will keep up to date.
"No one should be turned away from a late-night venue, or large-scale event if they don’t have their proof of vaccination, given enforcement doesn’t begin for two weeks.
“There are no plans to delay the coming into force of the enforcement provisions. We are aware of some teething issues which are primarily down to the volume of requests.
"The work that has already taken place has resolved many of the issues people have been experiencing. We expect any residual problems to be fixed shortly.”
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