At first sight The Middle Ale in Dundonald, Northern Ireland looks just like any other pub. There is a big TV, an array of seating, and beer pumps behind the bar. Look a little closer, however, and you might ask why there are packets of fajitas and gravy granules on the walls.

That’s because the pub belongs to the supermarket chain Lidl, but the Middle Ale (like “middle aisle”, get it?) isn’t just a wacky marketing stunt. Northern Ireland has ultra-strict laws around licences to sell alcohol, whether as a shop, pub or nightclub. Lidl tried to get a licence to sell alcohol in its Dundonald store, and was refused, but after a court battle it did manage to get a licence for a pub – which it duly opened next door, selling alcohol to take away as well as serving drinks in the pub itself.

It’s an absurd chapter of a much bigger story: local activists have long demanded licensing reform that could invigorate Northern Irish nightlife.

The Lidl pub situation exposed “the hypocrisy of everything we’re up against,” says Boyd Sleator. In 2021, Sleator and Belfast-based DJ Holly Lester co-founded Free the Night, a charitable organisation formed in 2021 with the aim of creating a safe and progressive nightlife in Northern Ireland.

Research conducted by Free the Night claims that obtaining an alcohol licence in Northern Ireland costs, on average, £75,250, but they say they have heard of sums up to £1m changing hands. This is because the current “surrender principle” means that any new pub or club must buy an existing licence from another establishment, a unique “one-in, one out” law. It must also prove an inadequacy of licensed premises to serve the local community.

According to the BBC, The Middle Ale cost Lidl more than £500,000 and took six years of planning, numbers that Sleator and Lester say expose the barriers facing those keen to open new venues in the country. “[That’s] something no local can do,” claims Sleator. “In a way I’m glad they did it because it helps us expose how shit the current system is.”

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Lidl. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Gordon Cruikshanks, managing director for Lidl Northern Ireland, previously told the BBC that the pub “was the best option to be able to provide the community in Dundonald with our full range of products”, but any changes to licensing laws were “for others to continue to discuss”.

Free the Night is mounting a legal challenge over the minister for communities’ decision to reject a 2025 independent review of liquor licensing conducted by the University of Stirling. Key among Free the Night’s aims is a comprehensive review of alcohol licensing legislation, including the removal of the surrender principle. Northern Irish musicians including Bicep, David Holmes and Max Cooper signed an open letter outlining their demands.

In a statement, the Department for Communities told the Guardian: “As legal proceedings are ongoing; it would be inappropriate for the Department to comment.”

Lester began work on Free the Night during the pandemic when she lost her DJ gigs and returned home to Belfast. “I was shocked at how things were regressing,” she says. “The nightlife ecosystem seemed to be in a worse position than when I’d left eight years previously.”

Lester says she finds the night-time economy in Northern Ireland to be “incredibly restrictive” because there are “basically no venues here”. Strict closing times are also problematic, meaning promoters are “trying to cram everything into this very small time frame”. The knock-on effects mean that promoters are less able to attract international talent while also struggling to give opportunities to local talent.

Both point to Ulster Sports Club, a historic venue that closed in 2018 before reopening under new management a year later, as an example of one thriving Belfast venue. Bands including English Teacher and Mary in the Junkyard have played there while its 3am weekend closing time offers an opportunity for late-night partying.

Sleator has a background in human-rights advocacy, including work around abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He is used to butting heads with the local authorities and speaks of a culture that cares more about the past than the future. “We’ve got an incredibly divided government who still only care about green and orange [traditional Nationalist and Unionist] issues,” he says. The pair also can’t help feeling that their dream of 24-hour clubbing is a little too utopian for those in government. “There’s an attitude of ‘You shouldn’t be shaking your hips, that’s the devil’s work’,” Sleator says with a grim chuckle.

One key aim of Free the Night is to give musicians the spaces they need to thrive. The current lack of these has created a “creative drain”, they say. Their research shows that 70% of creatives had thought about leaving Northern Ireland, with 60% actually making the move.

DJ Or:la, who signed Free the Night’s open letter, says she has “harboured a real frustration with the licensing laws and lack of venues across the country” since she was a teenager. She has felt “pushed out” in her bid to pursue a career in music and now lives in Liverpool.

“It’s clear that Belfast and Northern Ireland more broadly are not yet seen as nightlife destinations in the way that cities such as Berlin, Amsterdam and others across the UK are,” she says. She adds that while Northern Ireland is “flourishing in many areas” its nightlife “seems to be moving backwards”.

A court date originally scheduled for mid-September has been delayed as Free the Night requires extra funds to continue its legal action. Free the Night believes that the authorities are overlooking the opportunities that a thriving nightlife economy could bring.

“We see clubs and live music venues as spaces that can break down prejudices,” Sleator says. He cites his time raving in the 90s as proof of how music can bring people together. “There’s a lot of stuff in Northern Ireland which is like, ‘Let’s get Catholics and Protestants into a room together …’ We were just going there organically. I think that that’s where a lot of peace-building happened.”