Auckland Laneway Festival battles police and council objections to liquor licence at new Western Springs venue

Promoters of the first Laneway Festival in Auckland for years have met opposition from police, a council inspector and health officials in their bid for a liquor licence after they proposed to make the event all-ages for the first time.

After a day-long hearing on Tuesday, the Auckland District Licensing Committee indicated it would grant an R16 licence rather than what was effectively an all-ages designation initially sought by the festival.

Laneway has left its most recent home at Albert Park in the central city, where the festival was last held in 2020. Next year’s all-day event on Waitangi Day will be held at Western Springs Stadium for the first time.

Also new is a decision by organisers to allow in people under 18. That is proving controversial with both punters and authorities.

All previous Laneway Festivals in Auckland were restricted to those aged 18 and over.

The new all-ages designation formed one of the main grounds of concern for Auckland Council licensing inspector Kathleen Handley, who wrote a report opposing the application. Police and the medical officer of health were also opposed to the licence, but it did not attract a single public objection.

“I have serious concerns about social supply and intoxication of minors, as well as the exposure of minors to drinking and adult drinking behaviours,” Handley wrote.

A previous council inspector in charge of Laneway had advised that it “is not a family-friendly event”, her report said.

The move to allow under-18s into the festival also received a lukewarm response online. A post on the Laneway Festival NZ Facebook page announcing tickets were on sale for R16 patrons attracted a uniformly negative response, Handley’s report said.

“Disappointing,” wrote one fan, in a comment that garnered 102 likes.

“No adult wants to be at Laneway with 16-year-old teenyboppers. Was a big L [loss] moving Laneway to Western Springs, but it’s an even bigger L making it R16.”

The initial licence application had proposed the entire Western Springs event be “undesignated”, meaning under-18s would have been allowed anywhere on site.

At today’s licensing committee, John Young, lawyer for St Jerome’s Laneway NZ, said the applicant had refined its proposal to include licensed and unlicensed areas.

The licensed areas would be designated as restricted, barring under-18s, with everyone over 18 wearing a wristband.

A capacity 50,000-strong crowd waiting to welcome Six60 to Western Springs in February 2019. Five years on, the venue is set to play host to the Laneway Festival for the first time. Photo / Chris Louft

Young told the committee that change in designation should be seen to have largely addressed the concerns of the reporting agencies.

While he acknowledged some “residual concerns” from authorities, he said they did not reach the threshold required to scupper the application.

During his cross-examination of Handley, Young asked whether she believed separating the venue into licensed and unlicensed areas would help address concerns.

Handley said she believed it did not, and it was her view that all the festival site should be a restricted area.

A report from Senior Sergeant Mark Franich, of the Auckland police Alcohol Harm Prevention Unit, said the applicant had promoted the event to authorities as a 16-plus festival.

Previous Laneway Festivals were held at Silo Park and most recently Albert Park. Its new home is Western Springs, but promoters have hit a speed bump in the form of opposition to their licence application. Photo / Supplied

But there was no restriction on under-16s buying tickets.

He said the application “will undoubtedly result in direct incidences of, and exposure to, harm to our youth who attend this event” and was contrary to the object of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act.

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora delegate Sebastian Miklos also flagged concerns about the exposure of under-18s to alcohol, given they were not required to be accompanied by adults.

He said Western Springs offered limited shade or water stations, and the size of the venue could make it difficult to monitor and manage in light of up to 25,000 revellers.

Wendy Alfeld, owner of Multi Events, which is contracted by Laneway to supply bar staff, duty managers and manage intoxication, said there were to be four separate shade structures along the fence line, a significant increase from the initial proposal.

To prevent jump-ins or people passing alcohol over the fence, there would be two layers of fencing at the boundary to create a “moat-like space”, she said.

Veteran Auckland music promoter and event manager Campbell Smith, manager of Laneway 2024, said the event was all-ages but recommended for people aged 16 and over.

“We will turn people away if we don’t feel they are suitable for the event,” he said in response to questions from a council official.

To date, they had sold about 14,300 tickets and 500 of those were to under-18s, Smith said.

Tickets are priced from $212.90 and $292.90 and the event is to be headlined by British rapper Stormzy and US artists Steve Lacy and Dominic Fike.

Responding to questions from committee chair Marguerite Delbet, Handley said she was happy with the levels of shade, the layout and the ratio of security guards as now proposed. But she still wanted the event to be R18.

In his closing remarks, Young expressed some frustration at what he described as the agencies’ unwillingness to engage with Smith’s experience in running large events.

Smith ran the Big Day Out festivals for years and more recently Auckland City Limits.

Young said Smith was of the view that 16 and 17-year-olds who wanted to see their favourite acts in person deserved to have that experience.

Water and shade issues raised by authorities had been dealt with comprehensively, Young said. Alfeld and Smith were “deeply experienced operators” who were not about to risk their reputations over a poorly run festival.

“There’s absolutely no upside to taking risks that could ruin their careers.”

The committee retired just before 5pm and returned about half an hour later.

“We have an application before us which is still opposed by three agencies,” Delbet said. “For us not to take that opposition into account would be unwise.”

However, they had also taken Young’s points onboard. “We tried to find a happy medium.”

She said the committee was proposing to make the licence for the event R16.

She asked the applicant to come back by midday on Thursday with an updated plan for how to manage the R16 designation, and requested an amended drinks list with more low-alcohol options.

“We’ve probably made everybody unhappy here,” Delbet said.

George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.