Minimum age for a charity band night

[Will_Tech]

Hi there,

 

I have a charity band fundraising night on at the theatre I work at this Saturday, but a minmum age query has arose. The doors will open at 18:45, the show will be at 19:30 and the gig will finish at 22:40. We have said that the minimum age is 8, however you must to be 18 to enter the "bar" area of the bar and anyone under 18 must leave at 11. Our bar manager (and licensee) has confirmed that this will be fine however; I just wanted to get further justification (I will be in for it if all goes wrong!). I know this should probably be one for my local licensing authority but I wanted to see what you guys thought before I start the extremely tedious process of contacting them. The bar will be serving alcohol and soft drinks from 18:45 - 12:30.

 

Whats your views? Do you agree, or can you see a problem?

 

Any help would be greatley appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Will

[paulears]

As long as we're talking about the audience, then as long as they are not in the bar area, but in the auditorium and foyer areas, there's no problem. We put on kids shows frequently, and on a Chuckle Brothers show - kids are everywhere, apart from the bar. The good point is that the bar manager is the responsible person, and the license is now linked to his name - so if he got it wrong, it would be him personally to blame. So if he's happy, that's it! There's no need for a curfew - parents have responsibility for this one. No unaccompanied kids could be a good move - but just to stop trouble, with drunk kids who got their booze from overage mates.

[Will_Tech]

Many thanks, that puts me at ease a bit more. So, would you advise no under 18's in the bar at all?

 

Will

[lampygirl]

I would suggest that if the Licence holder is happier with no under 18s at the bar then this is best to stick with. It's his neck on the line. If it's pretty easy to segregate then it could be advisable. I'm a licence holder myself and wouldn't want to risk it. The current premises licence is probably a good place to start. Does that have any requirements on it already with regards to ages, times and areas of the venue? If you can stay within that it is easier than having to apply for a temporary change of licence for a particular event. As you say yourself., check with your local authority licencing dept, but ideally it should be the licence holder having the discussion and making the decisions...

[Robin D]

The other thing to do is to have posters prominently displayed advising that you will demand proof of age for those who appear to be under 21/25. These need to be at the bar as well as on the main entrances. The second poster you need is one telling others that purchasing alcohol for under 18's is a criminal offence. I've found it worthwhile to point out that even parents cannot buy for their children as its a) not in a home environment and b) not served with a meal. Useful free posters available at The wine and spirit trade association.

 

Putting posters up is not a panacea though should someone be from the LA, police etc be in the audience and not see youngsters being challenged.

 

Worth putting in your advertising a line that says an 'Over 2n' policy is in place.

[Ynot]

The simple answer (which has already been given in different ways) is that the responsibility for managing the under age presence lies squarely with the licence holder at the venue. He/She should be making sure that whatever terms of service to anyone who MAY be under 18 are clearly stated, and that their staff conform to those house rules. That MAY include asking for ID of anyone even under 21, but that part is NOT compulsory.

 

As for youngsters actually in the bar, again (particularly with places of entertainment) this is not qite the same as pubs/clubs. Children CAN be in the licensed bar area, but house rules may dictate they should not be allowed to approach the bar. BUT I'd need to check whether this is in fact LAW. In our case, the theatre foyer is also the bar, and the coffee/soft drinks bar is adjacent to the licensed section. We do certainly encourage youngsters to use the obvious side, particularly as we don't have confectionery and most soft drinks on the bar end.

 

But in essence, unless YOU are on either the management team for the venue and have any specific responsibilities for the licencing, I suggest you just politely back away from the question and leave it to those who do. They will soon advise you of any measures they'd like you to take.

 

 

[Sam Jelfs]

I can't add anything official to this, but as anecdotal evidence, there is a venue that I used to frequent when I was a kid (from about 13-16), multi-purpose venue (fold out seating for theatre, flat floor for gigs that kind of thing) where the age limit was 14 (I think it might even have been 12 if accompanied by an over 16) and the only place to get a drink was from the bar. So on a lot of the "rock" gig nights you had a lot of under 18's in the venue, not accompanied by adults, who had to go to the bar to get drinks... this is the kind of place where it got so hot in the main room the sweat / condensation would drip off the roof, the kids needed fluids after dancing for hours, and banning them from the bar area would have meant no way to get a drink, not sure how well that would go down with the h&s / local rag etc. So that might be something to think about, if you have a lot of under-18's who are not accompanied by an adult, how are they going to get a drink - especially important if it is likely to be an "active" gig night.

 

(And I just checked, from what I can find online it looks like the age policy etc at the venue hasn't changed, I havent been there in 10 years or more so wasn't sure)