[insickness]

New York City had laws on the books until 2017 banning dancing in bars that don't have a "caberet license." I remember going out to bars and seeing signs on the wall that said "No dancing." We thought it was a joke until they came up to us and told us to stop dancing. Places could get hefty fines. It took a big activist push to get the law repealed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Cabaret_Law

[krrrh]

Vancouver until fairly recently had the same thing. I remember a hostel downtown that had a boisterous bar where one side had the license and one side didn’t for some arcane reason and they had a three foot fence with a swinging door separating the two sides. Hostel stuff still tried to happen, one night I was there and a guy stood up and started playing saxophone and a bunch of people started dancing and the poor staff had to go into panic mode trying to get everyone to stop.

[dcsan]

I think Tokyo still has the same thing, technically

[jackcosgrove]

How much did a cabaret license cost?

[krasin]

It appears that it cost a lot (a not just the money; also time + hassle). I quote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Cabaret_Law#Caba...

>All applicants for a cabaret license had to be fingerprinted; to provide extensive financial records; to meet specific zoning, surveillance, physical security, fire, building, electrical, health, and record keeping requirements; and to pay the fees associated with each compliance.

>In 2016, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs claimed there were then 118 cabaret licenses in a city of 25,100 licensed food service establishments.