You Don’t Look Twenty-One!

3/12/2011

Event Wristbands for Legal Alcohol Sales

Underage drinking is no joke, particularly if you are an event organizer or promoter, particularly if you have a reputation to uphold, particularly if you are overseeing an all-ages event. Family gatherings can tolerate, and even thrive, with a controlled quantity of responsible adult consumption. If even a single green teenager finds his or her way into the good graces of a lax barkeeper, you leave yourself open to disaster: violence, lawsuits, arrests.

Even a little rowdy, drunken behavior on the part of an underage drinker can permanently mar your festival.

Event Wristbands were made for just these occasions.

Adult shows are another matter, of course. If you’ve advertised 21+ and have bouncers carding at the door, you’ve done what needed to be done. Barring some very skillful fake I.D.s, your bases are covered. It’s the big, all-ages events that need the extra security of the Event Wristband. Your vendors don’t have time to verify I.D. cards when there’s a line of thirsty patrons wending around the refreshment tent. They don’t need the hassle of dealing with tricky teenagers who might flirt distractingly or casually announce, “You remember me, right?” before trying to cadge a drink.

Your best bet is a wristband bottleneck near or at the gate of the event. Those who wish to drink must allow staff to scrutinize their I.D.s—and it helps if you have a tent for just that purpose, so that staff can focus on this task without distraction—and pass out Event Wristbands to those who qualify.

Some organizers may even choose to sell the wristbands. Those who truly wish to drink don’t mind a nominal fee to do so, especially if you can offer some small perk, such as a restricted beer garden or souvenir glass. The Event Wristbands themselves, made of vinyl or Dupont Tyvek, cost you pennies a piece, so either way, you come out ahead.

Your drinking-age identification Event Wristbands are recyclable and customizable: imprint them with your own personal details and design. Many organizers find that guests continue to wear them for some time after the event, a status symbol to prove they were there and did some drinking. But more importantly, they’re manufactured so that once you remove the adhesive backing and fasten them around a patron’s wrist, they stay on until they’re cut or torn off.

Underage drinking is a major liability for your event, but a thin, lightweight, flexible, paper or plastic bracelet can greatly reduce the possibility of its occurrence. Young people may work hard to obtain alcohol, but you don’t have to put much effort into denying it to them. Simply order sufficient sheets of printed wristbands and save yourself and your staff the worry and hassle.