Couples devastated at Level 3 ban on live music and dancing at weddings

Couples across Ireland have been left devastated as new Level 3 guidelines ban live music and dancing at weddings. File Picture

Couples across Ireland have been left devastated as new Level 3 guidelines ban live music and dancing at weddings.

The new guidelines, distributed by Fáilte Ireland this week and agreed under the Departments of Health and Arts and Culture, state that up to 25 guests are permitted to attend the ceremony and reception (exclusive of bride, groom and staff), however at the reception, the event must be a sit-down meal only with "live music/dancing – not permitted and novelty supplies/acts – not permitted".

Under previous Level 3 restrictions in August, dancing was allowed, as long as there was signage reminding guests to respect physical distancing guidelines.

Thomas Redmond, aged 34, is due to marry his partner Alan in Dublin's Merrion Hotel on New Year's Eve and says the guidelines demonstrate a lack of trust.

"When it came back to Level 3, we never questioned it, we knew dancing would maybe be out, but now live music is gone too.

The music was the only way we had left to make it our own as we scaled it back so much.

"We've changed our wedding plans three times now, changed the venue, had a big band then changed them and lost our deposit.

"Like anyone, we were unsure whether to go ahead but we don't know what next year is going to be like either.

"It will be strange but we're still looking forward to it, but it's a big blow to hear we couldn't even have music, we had planned small things, for me to play piano as a surprise and as we were supposed to get married in Spain, we planned to have Spanish music.

"We knew it wouldn't be the same so we made provisions to make it our own.

"My partner's sister wedding was cancelled twice this year and this is the only family get-together this year.

"It's so upsetting, it feels like there's no trust in venues to deliver it safely or the public to respect rules.

"We made difficult decisions, with only four friends with no partners attending and the rest just family and you're willing to do that and at every turn you're blocked again by something else."

The Wedding Band Association say couples and musicians have been put in an impossible position.

"We're very frustrated and annoyed about it, we lobbied through the Irish Hotels Federation that no changes should be made to previous Level 3 guidelines and now it has," says founder and wedding musician Cathal Molloy.

"Most bands are full time, and it's not just about the financial burden to them, it's back to the couple who are left in a rock and a hard place, for instance, who is liable for the deposit?

"This will have a massive impact as we'll probably be in Level 3 until April or May, for instance, weddings heading into February, March and April, if couples think they can't have live music, they think; what's the point? We're getting bombarded with panicked emails.

The live music is an integral part of the wedding and if that goes, the domino effect begins if the couple postpones, they have to rearrange every other supplier, all because of this rule.

The Association believes they can mitigate the danger of virus spread and had previously applied certain measures during performances, such as a distance between the stage and guests, easily done due to the size of wedding ballrooms and only 25 people at weddings, fever checks and having bands sign declarations.

They say their members have taken Covid compliance safety courses in order to return to performing safely.

"My own band do around 170 weddings a year, since July we've done just 15 and we've had no problem, no identifiable clusters that we know of," Mr Molloy added.

A spokesman for the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said: "Every level of the Plan for Living with Covid-19 contains a “basket” of measures which are intended, collectively, to contribute to lowering risk of transmission in alignment with the risk level at that time.

"The risk level at this time has meant that some activities have not been allowed such as live music or dancing at weddings."

The news comes as 256 new cases of Covid19 have been identified and six further deaths.

The Taoiseach said that "personal responsibility" will be key to keeping cases down after the festive period.

"Personal and collective responsibility is going to be central to all of this, without doubt, there are risks attached to this, so personal behaviour is very important," Micheál Martin said.

"We cannot predict what kind of measures we'll be taking in any given scenario, it's kept under review and I cannot overstate the importance of personal behaviour over the Christmas period."

Mr Martin added he felt that the arrival of the vaccine won't cause people to disregard the guidelines, but stay the course for a few weeks longer as they know the stricter guidelines will soon come to an end.