Alcohol problems prompt concern
Mushroom Mardi Gras officials said they were pleased with the festival’s new venue – downtown Morgan Hill – but police are concerned about some problems at last weekend’s event stemming from the new location.
MHPD Lt. Joe Sampson said Wednesday that while the event was a success, there were some aspects of the Memorial Day weekend that could have been better.
“It was a good event, there were no major injuries, no medical issues, which is always a good thing with an event of that size, and it was good for our local businesses; overall, as far as we are concerned, it was a success,” he said. “But there were some issues, and we expected there to be. It was a challenge in terms of the size of the crowd and crowd control.”
Organizers estimate approximately 40,000 people were on hand for the two-day festival that in past years has been held at Community Park. The festival had to move because of construction of an indoor recreation center at the park.
When there were some minor incidents, such as a woman who fell and suffered minor injuries, officers had a difficult time getting through the packed crowd to respond, Sampson said.
“At times, the crowd was body-to-body,” he said. “We had a delayed response as officers had to literally push their way through. When you have a large crowd in a compact area, it is difficult for officers to move through the crowd. We hope to be able to address that next year, perhaps placing more officers out there on the street in strategic locations to increase our response times.”
Mushroom Mardi Gras (MMG) Board President Dan Sullivan has said he hopes to schedule a meeting with city officials, the police department and downtown representatives to review the festival from the perspective of each group.
“We didn’t really know exactly what to expect,” Sullivan said Wednesday. “We had meetings with the city, with the downtown, with MHPD and Public Works in the early stages of planning the festival, and a lot of it for us is not knowing. That’s why we want to have the post meeting, to look more into what we can and cannot do that would be helpful to improve the situation.”
Another problem police noticed, Sampson said, was some heavy drinking. There were several arrests for public intoxication. A fight outside a downtown bar, which came after the festival had closed on Saturday night, was “definitely alcohol related,” Sampson said, and led to the arrest of Frank Sandoval, 32.
Sullivan said the festival’s alcohol sales, which were down from last year, were operated in the same fashion as in previous years.
“We close our beer and wine booths at 5:30pm, but we can’t close down the liquor stores or restaurants or bars,” he said. “We start tearing things down and closing up, but we can’t stop people from going into other places and drinking or buying alcohol. On Sunday, we had them shut the music off, to let people know it was time to go home. This was the first year for us downtown; maybe next year, we would shut our beer and wine booths down at 4:30pm or 5pm.”
When the festival was held at Community Park, visitors had to enter through gates and had to buy tickets. Coolers were not allowed, unless for baby bottles or other special needs, and those coolers were inspected. Also, visitors could not leave the festival to buy alcohol to consume and bring it back in the park.
Downtown, there were no gated entrances, and festival-goers had easy access to at least two liquor stores and a grocery store where beverages could be purchased to be consumed during the festival.
“They are actually not allowed to be out there with open containers,” Sullivan said. “It’s hard for them (police officers) to distinguish between people carrying one of our plastic cups filled with something they bought from us versus something they bought from somewhere else. It also hurts our sales when that happens. This is not something we are trying to correct; it is more of an issue that we have no control over it. When we were in Community Park, if you had problems, you could ask them to leave.”
Sampson said police officers were talking with each other after the festival, comparing the MMG to the annual Taste of Morgan Hill, held downtown each September. Beer and wine is also sold during the event, and the public has the same access to downtown stores and restaurants as during this year’s MMG.
“Two things came up as we were discussing this,” Sampson said. “One was the time of year of the year. This was the first major warm weather event, and many people were anxious to get out and cut loose, they’ve been cooped up all winter. Another aspect is the nature of the festivals. The Taste appears family-oriented, from what I’ve seen; it has a different feel, even though the MMG has the Munchkinland, it is still a mardi gras, more of a party atmosphere.”
A group of 20-25 motorcyclists arrived Saturday for the party atmosphere, Sampson said.
“They were flying colors, wearing their vests and jackets with patches on backs of their jackets, and at the time, the Sheriff’s Office helicopter just happened flying over as a courtesy and noticed this group,” Sampson said. “They’re trained to recognize a situation like that. They could see that’s a large group, they probably saw there’s more of them than there are officers, so they flew a pattern over them to help us send a message.”
Sampson said officers on the ground also talked to the group to find out what was going on.
“Apparently they were not appreciative of the fact that we were paying attention to them, and they let us know it,” he said.
The group of motorcyclists left without incident.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at md****@mo*************.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 ext. 202.
