Overview: Surfside Beach Town Council voted 6-1 Tuesday night to allow beer and wine in hand at town-sponsored events. The ordinance passed on second and final reading and took effect immediately.
The Full Story
The change applies only to town-sponsored events and only to beer and wine. Town staff will set the drinking zones, and the town administrator will approve them. The zones will not go to council for a vote. They will come to council as a communication item, and council can bring one back for discussion.
Event staff will pick which events try it, and the zone will change each time. A zone could be the pier parking lot, Surfside Drive, or private property working with the town. Barriers and signs will show where people can and cannot drink. A person who leaves a zone with a drink could be cited under the open-container law.
Celebrate Surfside Festival is not sponsored by the town and is held near the town center. Krouse said the town has allowed beer and wine sales there for six years without an incident. Before the change, events not sponsored by the town could provide beer and wine, but the process required multiple licenses and approvals from the town.
What This Means
Krouse said the idea took off after the town’s end-of-summer festival. Restaurants around the pier parking lot were serving beer on their property. Some people carried drinks into the festival, and police told them to go back. Krouse said everyone complied. Lee Zulanch, organizer of Celebrate Surfside Festival, said getting approval for alcohol sales used to take a lot of work.
Zulanch noted that special permitting and specific bar licenses were examined previously. They had to apply for it. We had to get special event insurance that also covered alcohol. It was an ordeal for something as simple as to be able to enjoy an outdoor festival with specific boundaries. The festival has served open containers since it started and is entering its sixth year with no problems.
Consumer Takeaway
This bottle or news offers the drinker a more relaxed atmosphere at designated zones during town-sponsored events. A zone could be the pier parking lot, Surfside Drive, or private property working with the town. The specific location may vary by event, and it is not going to be on every event; it is going to be when the staff thinks that it makes sense to do that.
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