Councillors will consider extending licensing hours during some of the north’s most popular sports and music events.
The Highland Licensing Board is being asked to set guidelines for premises in Lochaber and Ullapool so that revellers can celebrate into the small hours.
The board has the power to extend the hours of licensed premises in connection with special events of local or national significance.
In Lochaber, the board is being asked to extend hours for the world famous Scottish Six Day Trials motorcycle event and UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
Thousands of people will descend on the area for the motorbike trials in Kinlochleven from May 1-9. A special parade will be held in Fort William on May 3 before competitions start on May 4.
It is proposed that late-opening premises, such as nightclubs, should be allowed to stay open until 4am on May 8 and 9, with premises allowed to open until 2am.
And on June 6-7, similar crowds will attend the mountain bike world championships, which have been held in Fort William since 2002.
The Highland Licensing Board is being asked to extend the hours on June 5 and 6.
It is also proposed to allow premises in Ullapool to extend their opening until 2am during two major events in the village later this year.
The Ullapool Coastal Rowing Club Skiff Regatta takes place on Loch Broom from July 10-12 and is expected to attract more than 1,000 competitors and spectators.
In a report to the board, which meets tomorrow , licensing officials say: “Following the success of the St Ayles Skiff World Championships held in Ullapool in 2013, the Ullapool Coastal Rowing Club plan to hold the Loch Broom Skiff Broom Regatta which is expected to attract over 1,000 competitors and spectators and will be a special event of local significant.
“The similar event held in 2014 passed without incident.”
And Ullapool’s Loopallu Music Festival Fringe events will close the music festival season in the north.
Loopallu is held in Broomfield Holiday Park in Ullapool on Friday, September 25 and Saturday, September 26.
It attracts a crowd of about 3,000 people and while music stops at 11pm, fringe events take place in the hours after.