Venues can serve liquor until 4 a.m. for events tied to 2019 JUNOs in London

The chair of the JUNOs host committee says allowing some bars and restaurants to serve liquor until 4 a.m. is not unusual.

Chris Campbell says the extension under the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario are for specific venues.

“They would have already had approval and that’s part of the event being a nationally significant event and officially associated and supported by the host committee,” he explained.

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“There’s a lot of industry-only receptions and some of them are very small of course and there are some of the public-facing events like JUNOfest. They require liquor licence extensions and this has happened in Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and all over the place.”

Campbell also clarified that the 4 a.m. extension is for specified days.

“And a lot of them, it’s more to have the option to be able to do that. They may not exercise that option but it gives them the flexibility because given the number of bands and the way schedules can sometimes run delayed and you need to showcase all these bands, it can go very late.”

JUNOfest runs March 15 and 16 with the big awards show on March 17.