Jack Hudson

DANCING restrictions were lifted last week, which meant it was all smiles at one of Gawler’s major venues, The Exchange Hotel.

The lifting of restrictions allows dancing on a designated area for up to 50 people at a time at venues with 200 to 1000 people, while if they’re below 200 patrons, dancing is permitted as long as they’re abiding by normal restrictions.

The Exchange Hotel director Damian McGee said it’s been a long time coming.

“The people of Gawler have been asking us about dancing for a long time and it’s great that we can finally be able to allow them to do it,” he said.

“We’ve been getting very, very frustrated and, understandably so.

“So now we’re excited to be a venue that can offer it and we look forward to welcoming people back.”

Mr McGee said the impact of dancing being missing from Friday and Saturday night each week was hurting his business significantly.

“Our go to market business model is heavily based around people enjoying themselves and dancing, having a good time on Friday and Saturday night, and we haven’t been able to do that,” he said.

“It was a relief, it’s a bit of a surprise as well.

“We welcome that back, but we’re also really mindful that COVID protocols still need to be maintained.

“So it’s not like it was, there’s still the one or two square metres, there’s still social distancing, all those things, which are really, really important.”

Mr McGee said The Exchange made the most of the restrictions being lifted and it was opened to dancing on Friday night.

“We’ll be spending some time training our staff and making sure that they know what’s going on, and our security teams as well,” he said.

“We got the government directions document at 7.30pm on Thursday night, and it showed us exactly what we can and can’t do.

“But it looks pretty clear if we have 199 or 200 people or less in the venue, then they can dance wherever they like, as long as they’re socially distanced.”