A doorman at on Bristol’s biggest nightclubs has said it is ‘ridiculous’ that clubs are packed with young people who have not been fully vaccinated.
The member of staff, who declined to be named, said clubs are struggling to find enough to staff to be able to open – because so many are getting sick with Covid-19 or are being told to isolate because they have been exposed to the virus.
The man spoke out last week after more than a week of nightclubs being open again following ‘Freedom Day’, as he was self-isolating.
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He called LBC Radio’s James O’Brien’s phone-in show last Tuesday, and reported that he worked at one of Bristol’s clubs that opened at midnight on Sunday night, July 18, so it could take advantage right from the first midnight of July 19’s ‘Freedom Day’.
Since then, the club has been open at least four nights a week, but door staff, security and other staff are catching Covid-19. He said he was ‘lucky’ that he hadn’t yet caught covid, but other members of staff had.
“My colleagues are getting genuinely sick,” the man said. “I’m lucky. I got a PCR test that I got myself on Saturday, but I’ve got to isolate because test-and-trace recommended it,” he added. That was leading to a shortage of available staff, the man said.
“A club without enough door staff is unsafe for everyone, not least of all the customers – it was borderline at the weekend, we were just at the cusp of being shut down, which means everyone has to get evacuated from the club.
“Not only for our safety, but for the safety of everyone in there – if you haven’t got enough staff, the clubs won’t open anyway, and if they do open it’s going to be unsafe for all the customers,” he said.
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The phone-in was debating the subject of whether or not the Government was right to introduce so-called ‘covid passports’ – the proposal is that places like nightclubs will only be allowed to admit people if they’ve been fully vaccinated from September.
That issue has caused a backlash from opponents, who say it is impinging on people’s freedoms, but the doorman said there are already lots of checks and conditions to get entry into a nightclub, and in fact it was ‘ridiculous’ people were being allowed in now without any checks if they’ve been vaccinated or are actually infected right now.
“We obviously stop people if they are underage, you have to show an ID and that’s for safety because you don’t want kids drinking in a club,” said the doorman.
“We don’t let people bring drugs in and that’s for safety as well, because if you let everyone come in and do whatever drugs you like – that’s why there are laws in place.
“We have metal detectors, post the Ariana Grande concert, most clubs now have metal detectors so any electronics or anything significantly made of steel will set them off, it’s for the safety of everyone,” he added.
“I’m an asthmatic, I’ve only had one jab so far because I wasn’t in Group 6, I would quite like to go to work without fearing for my own safety and getting a high viral load from a bunch of unvaccinated people in a club of up to 2,000 people if it’s full,” he said.
The doorman said whatever their views generally on covid, staff were concerned about the risks of covid being spread in a nightclub.
“We’re pretty much in agreement at the moment,” he said. “I was talking to the guy running the club. He was like ‘this is ridiculous’.
“We all across the board think it’s ridiculous that we are just pouring these people in who, because of their age, haven’t been vaccinated,” he added.
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