With just under a handful of liquor infractions, the promoter of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival is calling this year’s move to allow alcohol across most of the grounds a success.
“I feel the results were very favourable,’’ says Jeff Squires, president and CEO of Whitecap Entertainment.
The P.E.I. Liquor Control Commission’s website notes fines totalling $7,000 were levied during the festival held earlier this month.
A total of $5,000 is fines were imposed in relation to minors consuming alcohol.
There was also a $1,000 fine imposed for selling unopened liquor, a $500 fine for failure to check ID, and another $500 fine for allowing liquor to enter the premises.
Squires considers the number of fines more than reasonable considering the volume of people at the event that saw between 20,000 and 25,000 country music fans enter the grounds each of the four days on the festival.
He adds organizers will act on both positive and negative feedback in improving the popular event.
He says it is too early to say if alcohol will again be allowed across most of the festival grounds next year, but he suspects it will.
Feedback to date, he notes, overwhelmingly suggests the move was the right direction for the festival.
“It was definitely the best year operationally in handling the people on site – and that’s the feedback we are getting,’’ he adds.
Squires says to iron out any rough spots, the event has continually been tweaked over its 10 years in operation.