SARATOGA SPRINGS So long to Spa suds For pre-show drinkers, a sour note Police work to keep SPAC parking lots booze-free BY TATIANA ZARNOWSKI Gazette Reporter
The young people hanging out before the Velvet Revolver and Alice in Chains concert were psyched. “Scott Weiland is hot,” one young woman gushed about the lead singer of Velvet Revolver as she and her dozen or so friends gathered around a picnic table at the Saratoga Spa State Park. After trickling into the park about 4 or 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, the friends planned to hang out and drink some beers for three or four hours, then walk over to Saratoga Performing Arts Center and take their reserved seats in the amphitheater. “We’re not going to go in for the first band,” one young woman said. Then the cops showed up. Two uniformed state park police officers questioned whether the drinkers were of age, and ordered the owner of a large cooler to open and dump out every bottle and can of beer. The owner protested. “If I have to tell you again to open them, you’re going to be arrested,” Sgt. Jack Sadousky told him. The man complied, pouring out beer after beer onto the grass. When he was done, approximately 35 bottles littered the ground amidst a mass of foam. Before leaving, the officers told the group to dispose of the bottles. The party members, who were unwilling to give their names or ages, were fuming. One young woman noted that the parking lot at the picnic spot is usually fuller on a concert night. “This is where everybody always goes,” she said. Not one in the group had ever seen police officers direct concert-goers to empty their beer in the park before. “It never was enforced. Never. They’d come on horses and say, ‘You’re OK,’ ” the young woman said. “Someone told them to do their job, obviously,” she complained. But the week after an intoxicated 15-year-old girl at a Dave Matthews Band concert reported she’d been raped, Sgt. Sadousky said park police have been enforcing the alcohol laws all along. (Police later said the girl’s story was untrue.) “We check everybody, and we get around as much as we can,” he said. “It’s like putting out little fires.” No one is allowed to consume alcoholic beverages in a state park unless issued a special permit, he said. Large signs proclaiming, “No alcohol in parking lots” adorn the entrances to both large parking lots near SPAC. Police patrol the area and check identification to determine whether people are old enough to drink legally. Those who aren’t can be issued a summons. Adults are asked to pour out their beers. If they don’t comply, they are given a summons, Sadousky said. Just before 6 p.m. Thursday, people in the parking lots popped beers from coolers and drank straight from the containers, or poured them into plastic cups to drink. For a while, no officers were in sight. Closer to show time, as police cars glided through the rows, the drinkers were more subtle. But some tail-gaters had obviously been drinking, judging by their dilated pupils and slowed speech. Most appeared to be of legal drinking age. A Glens Falls man, who with his sister and friends was sipping beer from a plastic cup before the concert, said officers don’t bother concert-goers unless they become rowdy or flout the prohibition. Scott Warden, 29, said he used to drink before SPAC rock concerts when he was a teen. “If they can get it in, sneak it, drink it — all the power,” he said. Sadousky noted that drinking at SPAC before concerts appears to be a rite of passage for local youth. He aims to stop that. “It must be working,” he said, “Because people say it’s not fun to come to SPAC anymore and drink and act like idiots.” Sadousky said the officers try to keep people moving toward SPAC instead of tailgating in the parking lots. “Our basic plan of action is, if you are in the parking lots and are in the pavilions, we don’t allow them to loiter.” Some people on Thursday also complained about the rule that keeps people drinking inside SPAC from bringing their beers to their seats. Instead, they have to drink inside designated areas, including a large tent. Changing that rule would make a lot more money for organizers, Kristie Clune, 23, of Queensbury argued. “I would absolutely pay it if I could drink it in my seat,” said Bill Canale, 24, of Queensbury. The beer tent is one aspect that Don Lavarge, secretary for the New York State Police Officers Union Local 2796, would like to see eliminated. “When anybody has alcohol in their system and they’re violent and disorderly, it makes our job more difficult,” he said. Lavarge said concerts such as the Dave Matthews Band event are too large. State park police do a commendable job with the resources they have, he said. “We need to have smaller events that are more controllable,” he said. At least 25,000 people attended the sold-out Dave Matthews Band concert Aug. 14. “We would never sell more tickets than we are authorized to by the limits of the capacity of the venue,” said John Vlautin, spokesman for Live Nation, the company that operates rock concerts at SPAC.
Well...I agree, in part...but what is the difference if they 'tailgate' at a football game, or they 'tailgate' at SPAC? It's really kind of like the same thing.
I am agreeing with you shadow...but I honestly don't see the difference.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Dont you worry....pretty soon there will be no tailgating as per BIG BROTHER......
When the sponsors of NFL are beer companies,,,,,who is going to stomp on that......SHOW ME THE MONEY TRAIL......
Don't forget about Nascar. I understand that a while ago, they changed the sponsor of the entire series because they didn't want to promote smoking, so Winston and all it's buddies had to "hit the road." So now, who's the biggest sponsor? The perfect candidate. When you think about driving a car over 200 miles per hour, isn't the first thing you think of...Alcohol? Who are the biggest names in NASCAR at the moment? The Budweiser Driver, The Miller Lite Driver, ...etc. Go figure, forget about the smoking, but how about we plaster drinking all over driving cars. Surprised MADD or some other group hasn't come out against this...
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