They have also acknowledged that younger audiences are now drinking less than previous generations of concertgoers.
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The promoters have reached agreement with the Traverse Theatre, which is playing host to the forthcoming Soundhouse Winter Festival, for the venue to become a temporary “alcohol free space.”
Only hot drinks and soft drinks will be at a matinee performance next month by Scottish-Egyptian instrumentalists The Ayoub Sisters, who have previously performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the Cairo Opera House, Dubai Opera and the Glastonbury festival.
Soundhouse, which started out staging intimate house concerts in the city, has gone on to run the city’s annual Tradfest event in the spring, and launched the new festival last year.
Folk, jazz, classic, rap and world music will be showcased at the five-day event, which is being funded by the Scottish Government‘s arts agency, Creative Scotland, and runs from November 27 till December 1.
Jane-Ann Purdy, co-founder of Soundhouse, said: “This actually came about through a friend whose partner is a recovering alcohol.
“She was telling me that she wanted to organise alcohol free gigs because he cannot be in an environment where this alcohol. They can’t go, so they don’t go and are effectively excluded.
“There are obviously other people don’t want to be near alcohol for other reasons, including their religious beliefs.
“There is also a third group of younger people, particularly university students, who don’t want to drink alcohol.
“It is obviously quite difficult for the venue to do something like this as they obviously want to sell alcohol and have to make sure that alcohol is not on display anywhere, but they’ve been really supportive.
“It will be really interesting to see how this goes at The Ayoub Sisters show.
“We will need to find a way to try to capture specific information from the audience to see if they were attracted by the fact it was an alcohol-free concert.
“We can’t make a whole festival alcohol free. But this is about having an awareness, that I didn’t before, that there are people who want to go to concerts but can’t because of the presence of alcohol, and trying to do something for those people.
“The afternoon is the most obvious time to do something like this as people will maybe be more inclined to have a hot drink.”
A spokesperson for Alcohol Focus Scotland, a charity dedicated to reducing alcohol-related harm, said: “This increasing demand for alcohol free events and nightlife, and we’d certainly welcome that.
“Given that one in five people don’t drink alcohol at all, it seems only reasonable that this section of the population should be catered to in terms of events and nightlife.
“For those in recovery from an alcohol problem, providing alcohol free events and nightlife is a way of providing inclusive spaces where they can feel comfortable.”
The alcohol-free gig experiment will be staged at the Traverse weeks after a new report on the future of Edinburgh’s festivals highlighted significant changes in the “habits and behaviours of audiences”.
Festivals Edinburgh, which works with the Edinburgh International Festival, Fringe, Tattoo and the city’s book, jazz and film festivals, highlighted the potential financial applications for events if audience trends continued.
Evidence it has submitted to a House of Commons inquiry into the future of the UK’s major events said: “At a demographic level there is clear evidence that older people are not attending major events at the same levels as pre-pandemic, and while younger people have jumped straight back into events, they have done so with a more cautious approach to purchase.
“Gen Xers and Millennials haven’t given up on revelry but are changing the parameters, such as in the growing international trend to prioritise health and well-being.
“Such developments have an immediate effect on cash flow, but in the longer term will also affect programming and production choices.
“And the unintended consequence of addressing such challenges might raise another fundamental social challenge: in trying to protect finances, may lead to increased ticket prices and this could diminish the cultural and societal diversity of major events.”
The Scottish Government launched proposals to restrict alcohol advertising and promotions nearly three years ago.
However the idea was heavily opposed by organisers of sporting and cultural events over due to concerns about the potential loss of lucrative sponsorship deals.
The government agreed to carry out further research and consultation on the issue, but has yet to bring forward any new recommendations or proposals.
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