Provisions on having U18s in a club with alcohol sales

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Right,

So i'm planning to run a post-leaving cert party in a club in the town where i'm from.

In the leaving cert classes around here, most students are either 17 or 18.

A lot of them will be 17. So not having them would be a killer. If there was no alcohol sales, the 18 year olds wouldnt come - that too would be a killer.

I have an idea for everyone who is over 18 to get a red wristband, everyone under 18 gets a blue one or something of that nature to differentiate between the two.

Only red wristbands get served alcohol + Only one drink per person per order.




I read that U18s can stay after 9pm if a meal is served, but that would be hard to muster up in a club so that's not really an option!

I realize it's likely enough that it could be set in stone that U17s can't come in but any advice on the topic would be very helpful.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Ok I should probably rephrase a little.

2 years ago the same club did a non-alcoholic night after the leaving and it was a complete failure, so that's off the agenda. What i'm asking is: is there a way of having a night in a nightclub for let's say over 17s, with alcohol being served, where (obviously) only people over 18 get served drink.

My job will to pack the place out, so i make my money by a % of the door and ticket sales to the event while the club make theirs through their drink sales and cloak room. Having U18s at the club will obviously make it much easier to pack out, but is it possible?

Gambler

To be honest the person you are probably best talking to is the local Garda responsible for licensing issues. When we wanted to open a Bar for our event in a location that doesn't normally have one we rang the local Garda station and they put us in touch with the right person who told us straight up what he was and wasn't willing to let happen.

It turns out he wasn't willing to let some things pass that the great internet told us was all above board and when we checked it out it turned out that the law was a grey area in that regard but if we'd pushed ahead he could have shut us down legitimately and let the courts decide who was right.

Trust me when I say that if the Gardai don't want the night to happen then it will either not happen in the first place or be shut down when they find out about it on the night.

Personally I think it's a bad idea to have alcohol served on a premises that is intentionally advertising to under 18s. No matter what you do someone on the premises who is under age will be drinking and if the Gardai find that out the license holder will be the one to suffer - possibly even loosing their license. If you run an alcohol free night and there are under age drinkers there then that's not as much of an issue because the alcohol was not sold to them there and they obviously brought it in themselves.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Gambler wrote: »

To be honest the person you are probably best talking to is the local Garda responsible for licensing issues. When we wanted to open a Bar for our event in a location that doesn't normally have one we rang the local Garda station and they put us in touch with the right person who told us straight up what he was and wasn't willing to let happen.

It turns out he wasn't willing to let some things pass that the great internet told us was all above board and when we checked it out it turned out that the law was a grey area in that regard but if we'd pushed ahead he could have shut us down legitimately and let the courts decide who was right.

Trust me when I say that if the Gardai don't want the night to happen then it will either not happen in the first place or be shut down when they find out about it on the night.

Personally I think it's a bad idea to have alcohol served on a premises that is intentionally advertising to under 18s. No matter what you do someone on the premises who is under age will be drinking and if the Gardai find that out the license holder will be the one to suffer - possibly even loosing their license. If you run an alcohol free night and there are under age drinkers there then that's not as much of an issue because the alcohol was not sold to them there and they obviously brought it in themselves.

It usually runs nights. It's a proper nightclub and all so licensing should be grand. There's an upstairs and downstairs so downstairs could be no alcohol with upstairs selling some.. have bouncers on the stairs checking for wristbands?

I think the gardai will be on our sides. It's either going to be the 17 year olds in a nightclub under supervision with no booze, or knacker drinking in a field unsupervised.


I'm leaning more towards having it over 18s though, alot easier to manage.

Has anyone done an event similar to this?

medicsie

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

It usually runs nights. It's a proper nightclub and all so licensing should be grand. There's an upstairs and downstairs so downstairs could be no alcohol with upstairs selling some.. have bouncers on the stairs checking for wristbands?

I think the gardai will be on our sides. It's either going to be the 17 year olds in a nightclub under supervision with no booze, or knacker drinking in a field unsupervised.


I'm leaning more towards having it over 18s though, alot easier to manage.

Has anyone done an event similar to this?

Have you done a SWOT Analysis on your idea?
Have you sat down with the club owner/license holder?

What are the counter measures for stopping the wristbands being given to others once inside the door?.

I don't know where you're coming from if you think the Gardaí would somehow have your side if you hold an event and it just happens to gather all the teenagers in one location. If anything having more teenagers in one location causes more problems resulting from Traffic, Intoxication, etc.

Have you thought about a traffic management plan?
Health & Safety? (including Medics if RA deems necessary)
Risk Assessment?
Fire Exit Regulations?
Security/Gardaí presence on night?

Why are you running the event?.

You really need to sit down and plan everything out beforehand, otherwise it will go badly.

Fail to plan, plan to fail!.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

medicsie wrote: »

Have you done a SWOT Analysis on your idea?
Have you sat down with the club owner/license holder?

What are the counter measures for stopping the wristbands being given to others once inside the door?.

I don't know where you're coming from if you think the Gardaí would somehow have your side if you hold an event and it just happens to gather all the teenagers in one location. If anything having more teenagers in one location causes more problems resulting from Traffic, Intoxication, etc.

Have you thought about a traffic management plan?
Health & Safety? (including Medics if RA deems necessary)
Risk Assessment?
Fire Exit Regulations?
Security/Gardaí presence on night?

Why are you running the event?.

You really need to sit down and plan everything out beforehand, otherwise it will go badly.

Fail to plan, plan to fail!.

I'm running a night in an established nightclub in my town which isn't doing great at the moment so I think i will be able to have some sway with the nightclub owners letting me organize attendance. I'm asking on here to help out with plans for the night.

Traffic will not be an issue as the club is in a large town which can more than accommodate the attendees.

Health and safety is the club's responsibility which they have a set of rules in place to ensure smooth facilitation.

I'm aware of the risks I am taking doing this.



As i've said before, the club was once a thriving part of the town. So it is fully safe with regards to fire exits, etc.


There's a garda station in the town which will accommodate the crowd.


I'm running the night to make money and gain experience. Simple as.

Alkers

Wesley rugby club in Dublin often have a teenage disco with the upstairs only serving booze and needing a wristband for access.

Gambler

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

It usually runs nights. It's a proper nightclub and all so licensing should be grand. There's an upstairs and downstairs so downstairs could be no alcohol with upstairs selling some.. have bouncers on the stairs checking for wristbands?

I think the gardai will be on our sides. It's either going to be the 17 year olds in a nightclub under supervision with no booze, or knacker drinking in a field unsupervised.

In theory you may get somewhere with the alcohol only being served in a closed off area and bouncers checking ID before letting people upstairs and stopping anyone from coming downstairs with alcohol.

However "I think" won't get you very far with the Gardai. The first thing you should do is check with them and see what they say. It doesn't hurt to give them a call, find out who to talk to and go in to meet with them.

As medicsie says you need to do up a proper plan, find out all of the potential problems you might have with running the night and address them as soon as possible.

It isn't enough to say "I think this will be ok" - You need to contact the relevant authorities and find out what they say. You also need to contact the Night club owner and see if they're willing to take the risk. It's their premises and their license and even if you get the Gardai on side they may not be willing to take the risk of the bad publicity should something go wrong on the night.

I know a couple of night club owners who live in fear of some teenager drinking themselves into a comma on their premises because a member of the bar staff doesn't notice someone buying drink for their friend who has already had too much.

I encourage you to pursue this and see if it's possible. If you can line up everything correctly and everything runs smoothly it could be a huge success for you but you need to look at all the things that could go wrong first and address them before you start doing anything else.