Want to make your dreams come true, open your own nightclub, and make a living doing what you love? Go for it, however, you will have to make sure you have a few things in place before you go for your dream job. Opening a nightlife venue entails taking into account a series of legal criteria and applying for a few permits before opening a new venue.
Below we show you how to manage these procedures. We will talk about the requirements you need to start your nightlife venue as well as the licenses you will have to apply for in order to open it. If you dream is to start being part of the nightlife world, you cannot miss this article.
Opening a nightclub or a cocktail bar is the dream of many promotores and entrepreneurs and, of course, it is a very profitable business if it is managed properly.
In Spain, cocktail bars, nightclubs, karaoke bars and dance halls are almost a national asset, as the nightlife sector represents 1.8% of the national GDP and as of 2019 there were 25,000 companies dedicated to this line of business (Statista).
Nightlife is one of the most profitable sectors in the country, as confirmed by the data, prior to the pandemic it had turnover of 20,000 million euros per year and currently its recovery is going from strength to strength .
If you have in mind to open a nightclub but have no idea where to start, we give you the main keys to draw your business plan.
There are several aspects to take into account when setting up a nightclub, such as the initial investment, having a name and creating a logo, setting up the company, finding the right area and premises, looking for suppliers, making a marketing plan, hiring staff and, most importantly, complying with the legal requirements to be able to open the establishment.
And precisely, complying with the regulations, obtaining permits and licenses is one of the most important processes to open a nightclub, because the development of the project depends on it. If you are afraid of all the legal tangle involved, don’t worry, we will help you to make this task easy to execute.
First of all, you should know that the requirements may vary from one autonomous community to another, since in this case the autonomous and municipal competence, however, there are some generalized rules that mis be complied with, and except for some details, most of the procedures are similar.
First, in order to comply with the regulations and obtain the necessary licenses you must know the requirements that the venue must meet ir order to obtain the permits.
A venue for a nightclub or a party hall must comply with a series of technical requirements, which in most cases implies the realization of works.
These are some of the minimum requirements established by the regulations in general to open a nightclub:
For a capacity of less than 300 people, there must be at least three toilets and a sink for ladies, two urinals and a sink for men. For every 500 spectators the figure must be doubled. Physical tickets involve printing them on paper, which generates more expenses due to the intervention of intermediaries to do so and the hiring of personnel for the box office.
Must have an accessible entrance. In the case of having a step, it must be modified by a ramp.
The floor of the venue and of the ramp must be non-slip
The doors must have a minimum of 1.00 meters and there must be turning areas with a minimum of 1.50 meters in the entrance areas, at the end of aisles longer than 10 meters and in the elevator area, if applicable.
The maximum decibels allowed depends on the area and location of the premises and the regional and/or municipal legislation.
Although it would be more appropriate to opt for forced ventilation because noise can escape through these gaps and it will be more difficult to meet the insulation requirement.
Whichever choice you make, you should ensure that there are at least 6 air renewals per hour.
As for the emergency exits, their size is proportional to the capacity, but can range from 7 meters wide, when the capacity exceeds 300 people, to 30 meters, when there are between 700 and 1,500 attendees. Exit doors must always open outwards and be properly signposted.
The first thing to do, after having decided the location of the premises and having selected it, is to ask the corresponding city council if that property is suitable to develop recreational activities and public shows, that is to say, to process the Certificate of Urbanistic Compatibility, in which the City Council cill analyze and determine if the use that you want to give the establishment is compatible with the municipal urbanistic legislation.
- Why is the Certificate of Urban Development Compatibility important?
Although the Certificate of Urban Development Compatibility is not obligatory in all the municipalities, it is important to process it to guarantee the viability of the business, in addition, it gives you the certainty of being able to initiate the activity without having inconveniences at the time of requesting other licenses like the one of opening or the environmental one. It is advisable to request it before signing any contract of rent on purchase-sale of the premises.
The Environmental License is a mandatory procedure for those activities that are called “classified activities”, that is to say, those that can be annoying, such as noise and vibrations; polluting, those that produce gasses or harmful and dangerous, such as those that produce substances.
The city council will request a technical project of the activity and the facilities (which we will explain later) to evaluate the security and to verify that the establishment adjusts to the effective norm with the objective to protect the environment and to the community.
As we said before, each community has its own rules, but in general terms, to obtain it you must submit the technical project of the activity and the facilities, in addition to an environmental report detailing the following characteristics:
In addition, the adequacy of the venue to fire regulations and major accident control procedures will be taken into account.
Once you have chosen the location and/or the venue for the nightclub, cocktail bar or event hall and it does not have such permit, either because another activity was developed or it is a newly constructed building, it is time to ask the municipal authority for the Activity License, which is the authorization that will allow you to set up the business.
Often the concepts of Activity License and Operating License are confused, thinking that it is a single permit, however, the first one allows to carry out the necessary works and installations to develop the activity and must be requested prior to its realization, while the second one, is requested after having the venue conditioned to be able to open to the public.
To be able to request the Activity License, it is necessary to present an opinion on the conditions of the premises, that is to say, an activity project.
The activity project is a document which must be signed by an architect or engineer, that justifies that the installations and the development of the activity comply with the regulations. In it, the competent professional describes the activity to be developed in the premises, describes the installations, compiles the regulations that apply to the commercial premises and justifies that they are complied with.
If the venue for your nightclub doest not exceed 300 square meter and does not need a major reform, you can start the conditioning without the need for the Activity License (Royal Decree-Law 19/2012, of May 25, of urgent measures for the liberalization of trade and certain services), only by submitting a Responsible Declaration of Activity. This does not mean that you do not have to carry out the procedure, you will only be able to start up the business and subsequently obtain the license.
If the venue need works to be put into operation, you will need the Building License, which is nothing more than the permission of the Town Hall to be able to carry out modifications in the venue with the due compliance of the regulations and the payment of the fee.
There are two types of building license: minor building license and major building license, depending on the size of the work to be done.
In turn, they are divided into immediate release and deferred release. Their difference lies in the fact that the deferre communication requires a positive response from the local authority in order to start the works, which usually takes place within one month. This does not mean that with the immediate communication license you can start e works without first having made the application. Thus, you will avoid sanctions and the temporary sealing of the space
This license is requested so that the city council can ensure that the work complies with both current legislation and safety standards. And the work cannot begin until the license has been granted.
To obtain it, it will be necessary to present a work project, which must be prepared by a professional (architect, engineer, etc.), which will include: mapping plan, descriptive report, justification of compliance with CTE, budget and detailed measurements.
If the premises you have chosen need to be conditioned in order to open the nightclub, you must submit the activity project prior to the works project, since this document also specifies the necessary works, justifying that they comply with the legislation in force for that activity.
In case the property is suitable to install a nightclub and does not need reforms, the documentation can be presented one month before the opening.
Being a non innocuous or classified activity, which are those that produce pollution of some kind, such as the activities of public shows and recreational activities, in this case a nightclub, it will be necessary to obtain the Opening License or Operating License, which is the last step to open the doors to the public.
And to be able to obtain the Operating License it is obligatory to contract a Civil Responsibility Insurance that covers claims for personal and material damages suffered by third parties. Each autonomous region or municipality establishes a minimum amount that the CRI must meet.
The Opening License is a procedure that certifies that all the requirements to start the activity have been met.
The City Council analyzes the documentation and then proceeds to inspect the establishment in order to issue the opening license.
It is important to emphasize that this license is not granted to the venue, but to the owner, sale or change of activity, the license must be requested again.
Broadly speaking these are the most important permissions for the opening of a nightclub, nevertheless, there are several managements that are indispensable to start with it.
In a second delivery we will speak of the steps that must be carried out in the Autonomous Community, Tributary Agency, Social Security, among others to guarantee the attachment to the effective norm.