A change of lakefront festivities at New Year is on the cards for Wanaka, in an attempt to engage the large numbers of youths who flock to the town during the holiday period.
Concern had been raised about the number of intoxicated people under the age of 18 loitering around bars and finding trouble at New Year’s Eve celebrations last December.
At the Wanaka Community Board meeting on February 1, Senior Sergeant Allan Grindell said there were issues that needed to be addressed regarding entertaining young people on New Year’s Eve.
"While their music was playing they were great but once that was over they weren’t engaged. They’re hanging around near the bars, so we need to look at ways we can stop that interaction."
The Otago Daily Times reported last month that 34 underage drinkers caught in Wanaka between December 28 and January 2 wrote essays on the dangers of drinking in order to avoid fines.
Queenstown Lakes District Council arts and event co-ordinator Jan Maxwell said she had seen intoxicated teens between the ages of 13 and 17 on the Wanaka lakefront on New Year’s Eve.
"There were a lot of young people who had preloaded — that did concern me — the level of intoxication, especially at such a young age."
"They wanted their own space, that’s worked quite well in Queenstown with the DJ stage. If it’s not what they want, we’re going to have the same problem again next year. We were all very lucky we didn’t have an incident. If something had kicked off it wouldn’t have mattered how many people we had on the ground, something would’ve happened."
"A lot of them are wandering around lost, not sure what to do and that was the concern," she said.
It was believed thousands of young people had flocked to Wanaka from out of town due to age restrictions being enforced at camping grounds in Queenstown.
Wanaka Community Board representative Ed Taylor was less than impressed with what he described as a "marauding group" of young people.
"When I first moved to town about 15 years ago, I heard about the good old days on New Year’s Eve in Wanaka where Ardmore St flowed with blood and broken glass. I think the police and the council have been really successful [in making it more family-friendly]. It seems to me now it’s swinging where we have to worry about this group of youth."
"After all that work to make it family-friendly, the hordes take over again," he said.
