Gardai are to be given sweeping new powers to close down concerts and club nights that they deem to be “unsafe.”
According to the Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, the legislation “will require promoters and organisers to demonstrate in advance that they can run the event safely.”
The Dail debate, which preceded the bill’s introduction, suggested that not all of the participants were au fait with modern musical events.
The Fine Gael TD for Cork North-Central, Bernard Allen, admitted he was baffled by such activities as “crowd-surfing, when a person is carried above a crowd; pogo-ing, jumping up and down in place; moshing; crowd surges; crowd collapses; crushes and provocative actions by performers.”
Rhetoric like that doesn’t bode well for the likes of Dublin’s Toxic Promotions who specialise in punk gigs.
“While I’m against anything that gives the police more powers than they already have, I’ve found that most problems can be sorted out by sitting down with them and talking,” Foley reflects. “I got a call from Vicar St. the day before our Holidays In The Sun punk festival going, ‘The Gardai want to pull the shows because their intelligence tells them that Combat 18 are coming to Dublin for Lansdowne Part 2.’ They thought skinheads in steel-capped boots were going to swarm the capital and level it to the ground. Myself, the Vicar St. security and Micky Fitz from The Business spent two hours with the police explaining that, actually, most of the bands are left-wing and they were fine about it. The gigs went ahead and there was just one arrest outside for drunken behaviour.
“It does worry me when politicians make laws about things they know nothing about,” he continues. “If Bernard Allen had been to one of our gigs, he’d know that the moshers all look out for each other. Of far more concern to me is the type of people that are employed as security. I’ve been at gigs where kids of 12 or 13 have come over the barrier and been jumped on by two or three huge big bouncers. That’s got to stop.”
One person who’s completely in favour of the new legislation is promoter Peter Aiken.
“It’s about time that they put some uniformity on it and said, ‘These are the guidelines, follow them’,” he comments. “The only promoters who’ve got anything to fear are the ones who aren’t doing things properly.”
What about concerns that the Gardai will use the new law to prevent events they don’t like going ahead?
“I know there was a bit of controversy about the Gards stopping a dance festival out west, but I’ve always found them to be great allies,” Aiken resumes. “If they see a proper event plan and think you’re competent enough, no problem.”
The Gardai were anything but fair-minded last week when they pressurised Panama Jack’s in Castlebar to cancel their Shagtag dating night.
Despite it breaking no laws, Supt. Pat Doyle deemed the event “offensive” and was promptly backed up by District Court Judge Mary Devins.
“The Gardai and the courts are there to enforce laws not make moral judgements,” says an involved party who declined to be named. “The enlightened times we’re supposed to be living in haven’t come to Mayo yet.”