Report given about wakefest.

[DuaneT]

Today the City of Kelowna is getting a report from City staff to cancel the event. After reading the report it is very clear that city staff have hit the panic button thinking, this event will be heading towards the riots that have occured in the 80's. Are there problems? YES there are, however they failed to look at other options. I will present some here later today?

[DuaneT]

The Kelowna city council has decided to cancel the Wakefest festival for this coming year. This is a big mistake. Every time Kelowna starts having a successful event and some trouble arises, they hit the panic button and bring up the memories of the Riots in the 80’s. Yes this event is for the younger people of our generation but that should not constitute canceling something successful. There are so many other options to look at with dealing with any type of crowd control that the city should take a step back and ask for public input. Listed here are several different ideas that would make wake fest successful and probably less problematic. I have worked in the nightclub industry for 10 years dealing with these type of issues and have a very good idea how we can control this better.

Please feel free to add your own suggestions.



1. Let’s start by making it a mid week event instead of the weekend. Anyone that is completely serious about this event will be able to attend it. It will help that certain element that travels up to Kelowna for a party with no tickets or places to stay as there should be both now.

2. Ban the sales of bottle beer 5 days before the event in all liquor stores, beer and wine stores and Night clubs/pubs. Restaurants should be exempt as they have better control over the empties.

3. Make sure all restaurant and pubs serve meals with all drinks and watch for over drinking. They do have the power to stop serving a customer but usually fail to do so in case they offend the customer.

4. Move the event to City Park Instead Of Waterfront Park. This will give you a larger area and disperse the crowd better. Think about building removable stadium seating in one area so people can sit and watch.

5. Having the event at City Park will also assist in controlling the area better as 90% of the people will travel from City Park to the downtown core to eat and to attend the nightclubs and pubs. This would keep the crowd in a more central area.

6. Install temporary street cameras through the area that are monitored by the RCMP or the city with a direct line to officers on the street.

7. Reduce the size of the beer garden once again or better yet move it to a place where the drinkers cannot see the action, true wake fest fans will watch instead of drink. This will cause people to come and have one or two drinks then go back and watch the competition.

8. Book a large entertainment act for the event and make it free for all to enjoy, and make it alcohol free.

9. Allow the entertainment act to perform until 1:00 or 1:30 am. This will also reduce the amount of people trying to get into the Nightclubs if the act is a famous one. There are limited residents in the area so this should not be a problem for one night in the summer.

10. Allow the nightclubs to remain open until 5 am. NO ALCOHOL TO BE SERVED AFTER 2AM and all drinks must be removed off the tables by 2:30am.

11. Restrict the amount of liquor anyone person can purchase at any one time when buying at one of the downtown cold beer and wine stores. Make the amount 75.00 dollars. ( one suggestion)

12. Create a bylaw that increases the fine for drinking in public to around 250-400 dollars.

13. Find a better security company then the one that is being used locally. ICM does not have the ability to handle large scale events.

14. Look at bringing in more experienced RCMP officers. Most of the officers I saw last year were around the same age as the people going, so the officers may only have a few years of experience and no idea how to handle large crowds.

15. Bring in some sort of amusement park rides for the community.

16. Increase the number of RCMP bike patrols and bring in Motorcycle police to just patrol the area around wakefest.

17. Increase the presence of undercover cops in the event.

18. Bring on a fireworks show and invite the community again creating a more family event in the evenings.

19. Close off Bernard ave at Water Street and close abbot st. at Hwy 97 and close off Leon and Lawrence ave between abbot and water st. Creating a large walking area, that will not imped traffic flow around the park, if we move the event to city park.

20. Increase the amount of shuttle busses from outlying areas and run them later into the night.

[darcyb]

I agree that most of these suggestions make sense. From all public accounts the number one problem with the event was drunkenness, so take ample steps to address that issue, not outright cancel the event. An option for that might be to remove the beer garden all together, and have a no booze without food before 9PM requirement.
Canceling an event for the more youthful generation than that represented by city council, just goes to reaffirm the statscan report that we have the most aged population in the country.

[KevDreger]

Maybe the city should get rid of it. It creates so much crime. It's a joke.

[DuaneT]

i will have to disagree with you there Kev.. Wakefest did not produce any more crime than a long weekend in July or Aug. It is how it is reported that that makes a difference. I spent many years working the nightclubs in the downtown core and I can tell you that many nights in the summer can create the same problem. Even nights in the fall or winter. If you want to see a crazy night, visit the nightclubs on News Year Eve. That will make the wakefest weekend look like a pre-school party. The same number of arrests that occured in the entire weekend of wakefest will occur in that one night.

The main point i was trying to make was that the city had other options it could have tried before hitting the panic button and cancelling an event that brings 7-9 million dollars into the community.