First - an apology to everyone for all the conflicting and changing rules this year. We don't find out what the changes are until our morning meetings.
Now for the bad news. Apparently someone decided to smuggle in vodka during the Labor Day weekend and got caught. This means that NO liquids of any sort are allowed in unless they are specifically for a small child (preferably in a stroller). We now have to check flasks and either make people empty them at the gate or take them back to their vehicles. Water bottles are only allowed in empty. Most patrons were understanding about the new ruling, but there were a few that were irate. I pointed out the mailing address of MAF on the back of the brochure for them.
Thanks to all of you who make our jobs easier. I have more respect for TSA workers now.
Now it makes sense. A friend of mine stopped by the booth and had a water bottle for his very pregnant girl friend. He related that when he said it was water for her that he was told that it might be vodka for him. I'd wondered why such a comment was made.
Dumping out flasks for sure sucks... I know a few of you had to do that... :'(
As far as I know that has always been the rule, even if they really were not enforcing it... but just remember... they are not going to "search" you at the gate.... ;)
We haven't been checking any bags, backpacks, etc. We're much too busy trying to catch the obvious stuff - like unsheathed blades, guns (including replicas), and bare feet.
Speaking of weapons, they've told us to peace-tie bodice daggers. We've been told to peace-tie weapons to the body. This could be interesting.
Once when I was I patron, my staff ended up being peace tied to my wrist. I think that was just Adam being a smart weed puller though.
Adam - a smart weed puller? :o ;D
My favorite peace-tie was a potato peeler in a sheath. I look at it as having a good excuse to grope men. ;)
So, what's the mood at the front gate this weekend? Any flasks emptied at the gate? Bodice daggers confiscated? Waaas up?
Goody and I walked out and back in thru the front gate, towards the end of the day with no problems. However, that said, we were behaving ourselves and didn't call attention to our bags/flasks or behavior either.
Not that we had anything to confiscate. ;)
On Saturday morning, they were asking if you had any flasks on you. They will not open your pouches/bags, but if they see a flask in your pouch, they will ask you to dump it or bring it to your car. Just ask Mad Jack..... >:(
Sunday was great - people were really nice and either had things well hidden or didn't have contraband with them.
Saturday was horrible! I've never dealt with so many nasty drunks! Andre (supervisor) got doused with the contents of someone's water bottle when they were told they couldn't bring the water in. I had so many people try to "sneak" booze in during my shifts. They weren't even trying to hide it! The guy on the scooter was the pinnacle (or nadir) of them all. He had a guy riding on the front of the scooter and his mug full of beer in the basket. Later on he ran into the exit gate at a good clip.
A favor to front gate, please pop the cork on your mugs and tip them upside down when you come through. It will save both of us lots of time.
Andre got doused? Oh, no!
I wish I had seen the scooter guy in person. The description sounded delightfully messed up.
I heard other wild things went on as well. Not necessarily in the front gate either.
It must have been pain in the arse drunk day on saturday.
We had to yell at a group of drunks at the chess board for banging the pieces together or against the stone board. I thought the guy I work with was going to lose it.
Teak and stone do NOT mix well when you add drunks into the mix.
Ah yes the Wine weekend... Notorious for drunk peoples..... :P
yet another reason for me to keep shouting BEER at the wino's!!! :D
It's one thing for people to get drunk while enjoying their day at fest, I've done it myself. It's another thing to come to the front gate already stumbling drunk and toting enough booze to get half the place sloshed. I personally have never been bothered by flasks, there's not enough there to do much damage, but insulated mugs are a whole 'nother story.
I sell flasks and even then warned people "Hide them or else, ok?" - and I was very pleased that MY friends asked to take them to their cars did so....and then sucked down my booze all day dangnubbit!
Yeah, I'm a tad bummed I bought two of them this year and cannot actually use either. I hope it does not hurt sales. I imagine rules that ban the use of something, be it flasks, or weapons, may hurt the sales of the same.
I have some wonderful flasks (including one of yours, Nikita) but only bring them out after-hours. Or at least I did last year. They'll be coming out again next year when the doctors decide to stop poisoning me.
Having flasks that are decorative is good but that are functional is wonderful!!
O.K., serious question for those in the know (SS).
I purchased a "clear" flask last weekend, I really like it. I believe it would look absolutely stupid empty. If I bring it in empty but fill it with red wine purchased on grounds will that be O.K.? Will I be stopped and asked to empty the contents on site, or worse, be removed from the grounds?
It would probably not be a good idea Dreg. You have no way of proving you purchased it inside the fair and would be expected to dump out something you just paid 4 times too much for.
The basic rule of thumb is if you aren't acting like an idiot in a really obvious location then you should be fine. The issue errupted because of stupid people getting drunk from a flask in a pub and becomming beligerant. Thus the rule is now enforced.
It's like how McDonald's has "caution: hot" on all their coffee cups. Because someone was dumb and now everyone else pays for it.
*sigh* This is such disappointing news....especially because when I attend in mundane clothing, I carry a water bottle with me - I get too dehydrated too quickly not to. Guess I'll have to find a way to disguise it for this weekend!
Behold me not saying a word about my beloved companions who carry the most excellent single malt scotch......I have warned them......
This new rule does suck, but we'll adjust. We're a hardy group of folk and we can make it work one way or another I'm sure.
I love my flask I bought last year, and I'll be danged if I'm not going to wear it even if I can't have anything in it anymore.
Quote from: harem_pants on September 17, 2008, 01:34:49 PM
It's like how McDonald's has "caution: hot" on all their coffee cups. Because someone was dumb and now everyone else pays for it.
Actually, McDonald's had coffee at 130 degrees and had several health code violations. The woman ended up getting burned on her girl bits so they don't work any more. There's more to it than the original story tells. (My fest boss is a lawyer and tells me things like this)
Quote from: theferret on September 19, 2008, 05:55:31 PM
Actually, McDonald's had coffee at 130 degrees and had several health code violations. The woman ended up getting burned on her girl bits so they don't work any more. There's more to it than the original story tells. (My fest boss is a lawyer and tells me things like this)
OT here but 130 seems pretty cool to me. We brew at 200 - 205 and hold/serve at ~180. Thank goodness she didn't get her coffee from me!
Quote from: theferret on September 19, 2008, 05:55:31 PM
Actually, McDonald's had coffee at 130 degrees and had several health code violations. The woman ended up getting burned on her girl bits so they don't work any more. There's more to it than the original story tells. (My fest boss is a lawyer and tells me things like this)
I remember we had to serve food at 140 or hotter in the service to keep bacteria from forming, so yeah I think 130 for coffee is a little cool. I think the thing that got most people was. Um hello it's coffee, it's always hot. So you put it where it wasn't safe to put it. And now because you were not thinking. You paid a heavy price. But that's a whole other story.
I had 2 flasks on me today. One of them was a clear one filled with an amber shaded liquid (IE...bourbon). I made no attempt to hide either and was not questioned about them once. I walked right past several SS through out the day without being questioned. I know they had to have seen the clear flask too. It's pretty obvious.
Of course, I don't get tipsy at 'fest. I think I spend too much time on my feet walking around that I either drink too slowly or sweat it out. I also don't frequent the pubs much (I think I have been to Mac's all of 2 times this year!)
I saw several people drinking out of flasks today too. I think if you are discreet about it, and don't act like an obviously hammered idiot things should be fine.
The most ingenious thing I saw this year was a buddy of mine who came out there with his wife. She put a bottle of water in her bag. Except the bottle wasn't filled with water. It was filled with Vodka, and as we all know, Vodka looks just like water. To anyone, it looked just like she had a bottle of water (and bottled water is something they sell out there...LoL).
I like that idea Storm. 8)
Quote from: tletourneau on September 20, 2008, 12:40:27 PM
Quote from: theferret on September 19, 2008, 05:55:31 PM
Actually, McDonald's had coffee at 130 degrees and had several health code violations. The woman ended up getting burned on her girl bits so they don't work any more. There's more to it than the original story tells. (My fest boss is a lawyer and tells me things like this)
OT here but 130 seems pretty cool to me. We brew at 200 - 205 and hold/serve at ~180. Thank goodness she didn't get her coffee from me!
Maybe it was 300 degrees...I remember there was a 3 involved. My memory isn't so good with numbers. I just remember that there were issues with the temperature and that it resulted in huge burns.
There's more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_coffee_case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_coffee_case)
Oh look! A bunny!
" she sat in the puddle of hot liquid for over 90 seconds," (from the wikipedia link)
Over 90 seconds? :o
Can we please move away from this particular topic? This is supposed to be about the front gate, not the horrible accident with the hot coffee.
Bristol has four folks at the front gate.
The whole thing is really meant to protect those going to the faire, and with that I have no problem.
If you're out of control, you really shouldn't be drinking.
Wise words Baron *cough cough*. I think it's like anything. They'll enforce the rules when there new to look like they are doing their jobs, but over time it will probably fall off. When Jack got popped with his flas he wasn't even displaying it. The guy looked at his pack on the belt and asked about what he had in it. Jack replied "my pipe" and the guy saw the flask so he asked him to put it back in his car. Give it time and it won't be such a big deal after a while. It's like the whole "no belly button rule". I haven't heard one word about it this year.
Last week, I took my flask off my belt and left it home. At the gate I was asked if I had a flask. Today I had my flask back on my belt but empty and was never asked about it. Go figure!
I can't imagine that it's easy to enforce on everyone just because there are more people coming in then there are watching. I've passed through a couple of times in the morning after dealing with things at B gate just so I could take a gander.
With the amount of people trying to get in, it's hard to catch everything. We have a new gate supervisor this year and have been having some of the cast fill in on shifts. You might be dealing with new people who are just trying to remember what they're supposed to be looking for, or a front gate vet that can check people with a glance. I'm somewhere in between the two. At least they didn't change any of the rules this past weekend.
I'm not looking forward to Friday morning. Some of those kids can be real brats.
I entered through front gate yesterday with my tankard full of water. I had just filled it up in the parking lot. I nearly always enter through B, so I kind of forgot about the whole outside beverage thing until I heard one of the gate workers yell "No outside beverages, including water!" I decided to take my chances, figuring since I was entering on a site pass they would go easy on me. They did. No one said a word.
Just out of curiosity, was I just lucky, or are employees generally allowed to bring (non-alcoholic) beverages in through front gate?
Quote from: Charlotte Rowan on September 22, 2008, 12:33:20 PM
Just out of curiosity, was I just lucky, or are employees generally allowed to bring (non-alcoholic) beverages in through front gate?
You know, I've been wondering the same thing... And what about employees with flasks? Are they actually allowed?
I didn't check flasks or mugs for pass holders yesterday. I figure most of us are smart enough not to drink alcohol (or use moderation) until after hours.
Employees are not supposed to drink between cannons, through a flask or otherwise.
As for outside beverages, we're not supposed to have anything showing in a non-period container. I often, for example, bring up soda from my tent or from a vending machine, but it's in my mug. Same if I buy soda or lemonade at a booth...it goes in my mug.
When being trained for being an ale tender, we are told entertainment, SS and CKC are not allowed to drink. Crafters can drink but rarely come to a pub. Jaycees are allowed to drink, but most of us manage to do so with moderation, those that don't have been getting weeded out especially hard this year. We have pulled several peoples passes who just didn't seem to get it. I regularly bring in outside beverages, but like Ethel, it goes in my mug. I also come through C gate so my mug never even gets checked.
Yeah, there was never any mention of independent food workers such as myself not being allowed to drink. I drink rarely at Fest, even more rarely when I'm actually working, and always in moderation. I always bring in outside beverages (non-alcoholic) but I was just wondering if I'd run into trouble trying to do so through front gate. I don't want to cause any trouble to the workers there, but nor do I want to have to dump out my water or coffee!
Thank you guys for clarifying. I've never heard either way and I work in a booth. I don't drink anymore so it's not been an issue but I was curious.
So I just have to give Kudos to MissBubu and anyone else who works Front Gate. I covered a shift on Sunday afternoon in order to help out. I have to say that it was a blast and that I had fun interacting with the paytrons in that way. All at the same time, you guys end up dealing with some of the same stuff that I always had to deal with as a site walker for SS. People who are just plain rude, indescent, and you just want to slap them. I was tempted by two paytrons to just tell them to go away and not come in. I mean seriously!!
So definately, Kudos to all the people who work front gate. From someone who has worked professional armed security as well as SS, you have my utmost respect.
Sean
Thanks, Sean! I'll pass on the compliment to the others.