There's a battle brewing in Christchurch's hospitality scene and it's not to do with beers.
With more residential housing popping up within the CBD, bars and restaurants are increasingly weary of the noise coming from their venues and changes to city planning could be on the way.
An evening at Hide Nightclub is a night usually expected from any bar but with townhouses and apartments sprouting up in all corners of Christchurch, getting on the neighbour's nerves is a growing risk.
Hide Club's Mitchell Ryder told Newshub noise is to be expected in the city.
"You move into the city for the culture of the city," he said. "There's going to be noise."
Williams Corporation is one of the major construction companies, building homes for people in the city. Its director Matthew Horncastle believes most of its customers make the move knowing what they're in for.
"The majority of people want our city vibrant and alive but there's also the people who will want their good night's sleep," he said.
It reached a boiling point for the Dux Central bar last week, with one neighbour complaining about sound levels. They've had to make the tough decision to ditch live music entirely.
"Look, it's really come to the fore this summer - it's this time of year where conflicting issues start to arise," said Christchurch City councillor Jake McLellan.
The successful complaint is making bar and restaurant owners across the city re-assess their own situations.
"We're not exactly a two-piece band, playing out in the sun on a nice afternoon over a beer - we're ripping electronic music late at night so we need to do something about it," said Ryder.
Increasing levels of soundproofing can cost tens of thousands of dollars - a luxury not all venues will be able to afford.
"It's absolutely not cheap," Ryder said. "Some other venues would really struggle to justify doing something like that."
People are continuing to move to the CBD, with the Christchurch City Council sticking by an ambitious target of having 20,000 living centrally by 2028. But there is a concern as more people move to the city, noise complaints will increase.
"I think it's fair to say how the city was envisioned after the earthquakes, it's not exactly as it's planned out… As more and more people move in, I'm expecting to hear about this more," said McLellan.
Changes to district planning to curb the problem are a possibility in the new year, McLellan said.
"We're going to need to balance a vibrant inner city economy with making a CBD a really nice place to live as well."
