North of Ireland-based nightlife volunteer advocacy group Free The Night are the northern equivalent of Give Us The Night, representing the voices and concerns of those who work and rely on late night music and event activities.
They’ve been running for five years with Holly Lester and and Boyd Sleator as co-founders.
Recently, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons rejected proposed nightlife and licence reforms in Northern Ireland, and they came out strongly against the decision saying:
“The Minister’s decision represents not only a waste of public funds, but a serious failure to address the longstanding structural issues that have damaged nightlife, cultural development and community wellbeing across Northern Ireland for decades.”
In fact, Free The Night intend to challenge the decision in court.
Phoenix Law, who recently represented Kneecap and Bob Vylan, have issued a pre-action protocol letter to the Department for Communities and the Minister.
“The letter is the first step in a judicial review of the decision to reject the key recommendations of the University of Stirling’s Independent Review of Liquor Licensing in Northern Ireland, including the Surrender Principle, and to retain the current system.“
With the impending court case, and the volunteer organisation marking five years in 2026, Free The Night have set up a Ko-Fi donation page if you want to help fund their work and the case.
Lester says:
If you support what we do and want to see meaningful change in Northern Ireland’s nightlife landscape, this is a solid way you can help. At the most basic level, donations will help cover some of the running costs we’ve been paying ourselves over the years – for example, our website, which costs £204 annually to host. At the other end of the scale, we would hope that sustained support could eventually allow us to employ someone for a day or two of work each week.
The reality is that there is an enormous workload involved in doing this work. As many of you will know, Boyd works full-time, and I balance several jobs, as many creatives often do. This means we can’t always give Free The Night the attention it deserves. During demanding periods, like the one we’re in now, we often have to prioritise this work which can have a real impact on the time we have available for paid work and rest.
This year feels like a really pivotal moment for us. We want to keep pushing forward, but we also want to relieve some of the financial burden that comes with running the charity ourselves. We’ve been exploring larger funding opportunities for a number of years, but often find ourselves caught in a cycle where urgent work (like preparing for the court case) takes priority, leaving little time to develop those applications. Setting up a Ko-fi account feels like a quicker way for people who believe in this work to support it.
We would really appreciate it if you could consider sending a small (or large) donation to us via ko-fi. I know times are tough right now, especially for many artists and creatives. If you’re not in a position to donate, we really understand this. Another way you could help us is by simply sharing this post on your stories and/or reposting it.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
