Napier City Council refreshes their liquor licensing approach at Art Deco - Napier City Council
What issue did you act on?
The Art Deco event in Napier is a large event that people travel to from all over New Zealand and internationally (travel permitting). A liquor ban exists year-round in the Central Business District and on the foreshore in Napier. Traditionally the ban was lifted over the weekend that the Art Deco event takes place however this was not generally promoted to the public. Three years ago, notice of the liquor ban lifting over Art Deco weekend was put onto social media by Napier City Council; the outcome was not good for the town.
How did you act?
Following the event, Napier City Council immediately sat down with the Trust that ran the event and discussed the importance of reducing alcohol-related harm given the number of people attending this event. The Council is a major funder of the Art Deco event so we felt that we should have more say in how the licensing was run at the event, while also maintaining the liquor ban in the city during the event. We focused our recommendations on how the Trust could strengthen their host responsibility role under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 and worked with them to look at setting up licensed areas during the event that could be managed appropriately. The Trust strongly supported the approach and set up marquees with bars and managers to run the licensed areas. We also worked with Police to increase the Police presence at the event. Napier City Council provided alcohol-free resources to support the event and so there could be some areas that were family friendly.
What worked well?
- Conducting a dual conversation during the planning stage with the Trust that ran the Art Deco event and Police to ensure that our recommendations and actions were aligned.
- Having alcohol-free resources available to support the event.
- Being flexible in our approach and lifting the liquor ban for the Sunday lunchtime Art Deco picnic. We have found that we get more buy-in if we have some leeway in our approach.
What did not work well?
- It was a big transition, but people are getting used to it now.
Top tips for others we learnt from this experience
- For big events like this, start discussions early combined with a review of the previous event.
- Include key stakeholders such as the Police as partners in the discussion.
- Develop a communications plan so the public can learn about any changes in advance of the event.
PDF Version: Napier City Council refreshes their liquor licensing approach at Art Deco.
Refocusing our events to be more alcohol-free and family friendly - Napier City and Hastings District Councils
What issue did you act on?
Refocusing Hawke’s Bay events – we wanted to implement more alcohol-free and family friendly environments at local events.
How did you act?
The idea for alcohol-free branded areas at local events was supported by Te Hiringa Hauora/Health Promotion Agency with the development of a logo to designate alcohol-free spaces at events. On the back of this, we thought it would be a great idea to design our own alcohol-free logo that had a local flavour to use at Hawke’s Bay events. This initiative tied in nicely with our alcohol-free environments focus area in our Napier/Hastings Joint Alcohol Strategy. We set about working with a design company to develop our own logo and then carried out a pilot study to test our logo design at one of our small local events, the Napier Night Fiesta. The pilot involved setting up a family friendly zone at the event, showing attendees our brand and getting their feedback on whether they liked it and if it resonated with them. We gave each person who engaged with us a free apple juice that was supplied by a local company. We have since included a list of all the resources on Hawkes Bay DHB’s resource-ordering website and regularly promote this each season to our local event managers.
What worked well?
- Te Hiringa Hauora/The Health Promotion Agency supporting our project with funding.
- Getting our brand designed by professionals.
- The partly funded collateral that extended from this initial idea - we came up with some creative ways to use the brand, for example on bean bags, market umbrellas, and flags.
- Having the specific branding and associated resources for alcohol-free spaces – this made it easier to engage with people like event managers as you can offer them something in return for having alcohol-free spaces at their events.
- Our Joint Alcohol Strategy gives us a good lever for action.
- The multi-agency approach, for example, the DHB has room to store the resources and a resource booking system which we use to book out the alcohol-free resources.
- Putting the onus on the event managers to book the resources themselves ensures they have buy-in.
What did not work well?
- Some of the resources we purchased have not been used very often.
- Having no guidelines in place for how and where we envisioned our alcohol-free resources being used caused some difficulty. For example, some people have wanted to use our branded resources for kids’ events which we don’t think is appropriate as they primarily focus on encouraging adults to either not drink or drink responsibly.
Top tips for others we learnt from this experience
- Develop an attractive brand that is locally relevant.
- Ensure branding is simple and makes it okay, and even fun, to be in an alcohol-free zone.
- Have regular contact and good relationships with event managers so that they are more likely to use the resources.
- Recognise that free resources are often a popular commodity so ensure that you have appropriate boundaries/guidelines in place for how/where you want them used.
PDF Version: Refocusing our events to be more alcohol-free and family friendly.