Changes to the province’s liquor laws may mean a change of flavour for Powell River’s Sea Fair.
The BC government announced Friday, January 31, that it would endorse all 73 recommendations on a report that includes allowing summer festivals to do away with fences around beer gardens.
“We’re still looking at it all,” said Sea Fair president Jenny Garden, who added that the festival organizers want to consult with the RCMP about how the changes will be rolled out.
Garden said a conversation is needed about whether they will continue to fence off the festival’s beer garden or open it up. Whichever way they decide, Garden said she wants it to keep the festival “tasteful.”
She said she would personally like to see a sectioned off area for people who would like to sit down with a drink.
“It’s really nice to know that if they wanted to get up and walk around or they wanted to have their kids sit with them, they could,” she said.
The new regulations allow for that, she said. “I think it’s a really positive change.”
The beer gardens at this year’s festival will be run as a partnership with Townsite Brewing.
Garden said she hopes the more relaxed approach to governing alcohol consumption will help increase revenue for the festival. “It’s going to be better for the festival as a whole because in the end we’ll probably sell more beer—that will help out in our fundraising,” she said.
The committee will have further discussions about the changes at its next meeting on March 7.
Suzanne Anton, minister of justice, did not say when all the recommendations would be implemented. She did, however, indicate that doing away with fencing at beer gardens and sporting events could be in place by summer.
The changes also mean that festival goers and sports event patrons could order mixed drinks, instead of just beer, wine or coolers.
The regulations also allow for alcohol sales in grocery stores, happy hours and allowing children into pubs. People hosting family events will be able to serve homemade beer and wine. Hotel guests will be allowed to carry their own drinks from a lobby bar up to their rooms and the hours for alcohol sales through room service will also be extended.
