Residents who live in the vicinity of two of the country’s biggest nightclubs are bracing themselves for a noisy summer and sleepless nights as mass events resume after over two years.

Since event rules were lifted on April 11, residents who live in Rabat, Attard, Żebbuġ, Siġġiewi and Mosta have already been disturbed at night by loud music from parties being held at nearby nightclubs until the early hours of the morning.

The residents have enjoyed something of a respite throughout the summers of 2020 and 2021, when parties were banned because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

Now they fear that a resumption of sleepless night because of the excessive noise they say goes unregulated.

One of the Malta’s biggest clubs is located on the outskirts of Rabat while another is at Ta’ Qali, which abuts a number of the localities.

By law, nightclubs are allowed to open until 4am.

Contacted about the issue, the police said they had already received 30 complaints related to loud music during the first four months of the year.

The figure provided by the police covers a period when COVID-19 restrictions were still in place and standing events were banned.

Now that those restrictions have been dropped, the number of complaints is bound to rise.

Loud music blasts through the night on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday it starts as early as 4pm and carries on until the early hours of Monday morning.

 The residents say the music is so loud that it can even be heard through double-glazed windows. And despite the law saying clubs have to close by 4am, it sometimes goes on for longer.

Delia to meet clubs operators

The long-standing issue, which had often made headlines, was recently highlighted by former opposition leader Adrian Delia, who lives in Żebbuġ and who experiences the issue first-hand.

“Everyone has a right to enjoy themselves. But everyone also has a right to rest,” Delia said.

“I am writing this post at 2.30am and yes, at this time, the tremendous noise and music coming from the establishments in the limits of Rabat can be heard from Żebbuġ. So much so that not only can a person not rest and sleep but it sounds like the noise is coming from one’s own home. This cannot be acceptable,” Delia added.

The Nationalist MP said that while many might not want to speak up about the issue, he was willing to “shout louder than the music which has annoyed entire villages”.

Delia said he was in touch with the operators and would be meeting them in the coming days to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, data published by the EU’s statistics office has confirmed that the Maltese people are the ones who suffer the most from noise pollution.

The figures show that in 2020, over 30 per cent of the population said they were “suffering from noise”, the highest rate in Europe.