The Bluff Oyster and Food festival Charitable Trust board, which organises the event, had to apply for a special licence for this year’s festival after Southland alcohol harm prevention officer Sergeant Hayden McNaught lodged an objection about the lack of security guards designated to look after the event and the use of glass for serving alcohol.
The lack of security staff had been mitigated by boosting security from eight to 10 people, but he said although there were no set rules around glass, police believed as a preventative measure glass should not be included as part of the event.
Festival committee member Kylie Fowler said at the time it had not encountered any issues with glass over the past 14 events — and would like to offer it as an option.
A decision was released last Friday by the Invercargill District Licensing Committee which granted the popular event the liquor licence, but imposed a condition no glass was to be used to serve alcohol at the event.
It stated it was aware it would take only "a split second" for everything to change for a person because of glass.
"This is from both glass breaking in a fall, or having someone fall on to broken glass [unintentional harm], as well as [intentional] harm from violence, where a glass bottle can become a weapon and cause significant harm.
"This is, simply, a risk we are not prepared to take.
"We do not consider the mitigations the applicant has proposed will be able to safely reduce these risks."
The committee acknowledged the importance of the festival for the region and the "excellent work" of the festival’s cleaning team, however it believed the risk of glass harm was greater than the level the festival felt comfortable with.
Ms Fowler said yesterday she believed the festival’s alcohol licence was never at risk, but while she felt it was a bit unfair, she was not surprised by the decision around the glassware.
"We ran the festival for 14 years with no incidents.
"We are being penalised when we have done nothing wrong.
"Nothing has changed — including the law, nor any local policy has changed.
"Yet there is the risk harm officer [who] has decided that all of a sudden there's some risk.
"Yet we have got no evidence of there being any incidents."
She said other events in the region, such as Christmas at the Races or in another areas like Twizel at the Salmon and Wine Festival, they were allowed to serve alcohol in glasses, so she did not understand why the festival was not allowed to.
"They have wine glasses and stubbies at their events.
"This police officer has said, well, that's not in my region.
"Well, the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act covers the whole country and Christmas at the Races is also held all over [the country], so not too sure why."
While this had caused a bit of annoyance, it did not stop the committee from organising this year’s festival, which was becoming one of the most popular events of the year for Southland.
Ms Fowler said about 4000 people were expected on May 24 and there were still some tickets available.
