Yes it is legal for Comfest to sell beer to people who drink it in the park because it is a downtown event with permission from City to do that.
No, the cops won't be arresting people for bringing in alcohol only. You can always get arrested for other types of shit but they will only give out tickets for that and only as last resort when you refuse to leave with it numerous times.
No, you won't be refused entry with bottles and cans of non-alcohol but we really wish you wouldn't bring it in unless you plan on taking it out with you.
No, this isn't about Comfest making more money. 'It's the trash, stupid.' Believe it or not, we realized two years that the volunteers who are responsible for leaving the park immaculate every morning were burning out. Without them, we're fucked. People were talking about closing Comfest at 9 PM every night. I don't know about you but that was unacceptable to a lot of us.Getting people to stop bringing in trash was the only reasonable solution. BYOB makes up the bulk of it and it just happens to be illegal to bring it in the park. Not only is it heavy trash that has to be picked up and hauled around, but we insist on recycling bottles and cans so that makes it even more difficult.
Yes, we are also wondering how it is all going to shake out. We know it could get weird but we are betting it won't based on the way we're training people to handle the situation, based on the way we are asking the police to assist us and based on the fact that Comfesters are the coolest most laid-back crowd you can have. We're very human and someone will probably fuck up but we're just hoping that Comfest Magic will prevail.
Yes, you can help your community by not coming if you don't like the music or the no-BYOB policy. Too many people come to Comfest. It's too crowded, we need too many port-a-johns, the beer and food lines are too long, people get too wasted, there's too much trash to pick up and we need too many volunteers picking it up and working security. Any of you who don't come will be helping all of the rest of us enjoy Comfest more and possibly enable it to survive. If you come, we want Comfest to make you feel happy. We are the ones responsible for giving the people the opportunity to enjoy Comfest and our decisions are all about ensuring we can continue to do that. If you choose not to come, we probably won't miss you but I wish you didn't feel that way. I wish you could see why we are doing it and agree to help us out and come down and enjoy it with us. If it is a money thing with you, remember, for every four hours you volunteer you get $16.00 worth of chips.
Comfest is free. We don't have corporate sponsors that might allow us to throw tons of money at cleaning the place up. Its all volunteers and they are tired of picking up all the bottles and cans. We really don't think it is unreasonable to ask you to buy the beer there and not make our clean up work so much harder. If we can't deal with the trash, Comfest as we know it, is going away. Seriously. And if that doesn't bother you, do all of us a favor. Don't come. But if you think Comfest is a valuable community asset, then help us preserve it by making a little sacrifice. Volunteer. Don't park in the neighborhood and don't bring bottles or cans. Thanks and I hope you have a happy Comfest.
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