Restaurants with a liquor licence and an entertainment endorsement can now offer their customers an even happier New Year’s Eve celebration, thanks to a small but welcome change to entertainment rules for food primaries.

Effective immediately, eligible restaurants that have lined up music and dancing or karaoke to ring in the New Year can now keep the party going a little longer – until 1 a.m. – as long as their local municipality is onside.

Prior to this change, dancing and other activities that involved customer participation were only allowed until midnight.

This latest change is part of a larger move by government to modernize B.C.’s liquor laws, increase convenience and let businesses focus on creating an even better customer experience.

Restaurants ringing in New Year’s Eve

• Liquor Control and Licensing Branch policy allows restaurants (food primary establishments) to remain open until 4 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2016, regardless of their normal closing hours, provided that food is available and local bylaws do not prohibit extended hours.
• Restaurants must apply to the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch to offer patron-participation entertainment (such as dine-and-dance or karaoke), and local government must support the application.

Learn more:

Check out the latest policy directives and learn more about different licence types at: http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/lclb

Review Canada’s low risk drinking guidelines, check out the blood alcohol calculator and find out how much is too much at: www.AlcoholSenseBC.ca