The Georgetown Charity Block Party will most likely occur on Oct. 28, planners of the event stated after meetings with Vice President for Student Affairs Juan C. Gonzalez. The newly planned Block Party would occur on campus with several new regulations designed to curb underage and excessive drinking.
Due to opposition from the Burleith Citizens’ Association, the Georgetown Residents’ Association and Gonzalez, Block Party was indefinitely postponed last month after the Alcohol Beverage Commission denied a liquor license to the event unless it was moved on campus. Gonzalez had proposed the on-campus move before the ABC meeting, establishing several conditions to be met before the university could support the Block Party.
The criteria include using a third-party vendor for selling alcohol and opening the party’s books to monitor how much beer was consumed in relation to the number of students admitted.
“The university’s lack of support, the opposition to the ABC was critical [to its disaproval],” said Liam Betterman (SFS ’01), one of the directors of the 1227 Gatsby Foundation, the organization that runs the Charity Block Party.
Betterman said the party’s planners have been working with Gonzalez to arrange for the event to move on campus since the denial of a liquor license by the ABC. Now tentatively scheduled by the foundation, for Oct. 28, Betterman said Block Party’s organizers are ready to establish new rules to prevent underage drinking and alleviating other concerns the university has about the semi-annual event.
“It’s pretty much done. We just need to put things together logistically,” Betterman said, adding that, recently, the university has been “pretty supportive of our meetings.”
Block Party has been criticized by the university and neighborhood residents for promoting underage and binge drinking. After the death of junior David Shick last February, former Dean of Students James A. Donahue refused to write his traditional letter supporting the event. The Advisory Neighborhood Commission, however, approved this semester’s Block Party by a vote of 4-3 in September.
According to Betterman, this year’s Block Party will be different in several ways from prior ones. The event will most likely be held on campus in Parking Lot T. Also, the party will be shortened from seven hours to three or four.
There will also be changes in the way alcohol is served. In accordance with university policy, there will be a beer garden at the Block Party. Students will have to present both a student and government-issued ID to enter the cordoned-off area and will only be able to drink while in the beer garden. Marriott will be the third-party vendor serving alcohol at the event.
1227 Gatsby has also been “working with Vice President Gonzalez to bring some other event on campus” during the Block Party for students under 21, Betterman said. Ideas include having a band play at the event and asking Students of Georgetown, Inc., to help supply food. One proposal to serve various types of food outside of the beer garden, called a “Taste of Georgetown,” will probably be scrapped due to the short notice, Betterman added.
All plans for the Block Party are “very preliminary” at this time, Betterman noted.
Gonzalez declined to comment on the situation.
Related Links
Block Party Postponed Indefinitely (9/29)
Block Party Could Move On Campus (9/8)
Fall Block Party OK’d (9/1)