Gateway Park concert series loses liquor license
Hornsby show to relocate to Buffalo after problems at Gateway Park concert
NORTH TONAWANDA — Saturday night’s concert by Bruce Hornsby and the Noise Makers was moved to Buffalo on Tuesday, after the State Liquor Authority revoked the liquor sales permit for all future Saturday shows in Gateway Park because of beer sales to minors at the July 26 show.
Christopher Ring of Metropolitan Talent, which booked the Saturday night series for promoter Vinnie Lesh of Concerts Plus, said Hornsby will perform in Buffalo’s Town Ballroom, 681 Main St., headlining a previously scheduled benefit concert for the Buffalo City Mission.
Tickets will go on sale at noon today for the revised “Feed the City” concert, which starts at 8 p. m. Saturday. Tickets will be $20 at the ballroom and all Tickets.com outlets, including Tops Markets. The price at the door will be $25.
The Pillagers, who were previously the headliners for the benefit show, now will open for Hornsby.
Lesh did not return calls seeking comment, but Ring said the move was necessary to save the show, “given the short notice and the need to produce the event. . . . We talked to the Hornsby camp and explained the situation, and he was glad to play the Ballroom.”
Meanwhile, talks are going on to save the other two scheduled Saturday nights as free events in Gateway Park: Aug. 23 with Loverboy and Aug. 30 with Rik Emmett.
Ring said, “The promoters are meeting with two local businesses.” The purpose would be to find someone who has a liquor license or who can apply for a temporary sales permit for use in the park, since Concerts Plus has lost its permit.
State Liquor Authority spokesman Bill Crowley said special event permits usually take 15 days to process, but the SLA can move faster if it has to.
“If we can get someone in there who won’t sell to minors,” he said, “we’ll work with them.”
“The free shows are all based on concession sales,” Ring said. “To say there will not be beer sold at these shows is wrong.”
North Tonawanda Police Chief Randy Szukala said the concerts weren’t singled out for alcohol enforcement. He said his department has made a regular practice of “compliance checks” for 15 years, sending underage decoys into bars to try to buy alcohol without being asked for ID.
“We’ve done at least one a year at the times we’ve had the concerts,” Szukala said. He added that there was never a violation found at a free concert until this year. There was one arrest at a Wednesday show in early July, and two bartenders were collared at the July 26 Gateway Park performance.
“I think we’ve hit every licensed establishment in the city this year,” Szukala said. He said the choice of targets is up to the department’s STOP-DWI coordinator, Capt. Roger Zgolak.
Dave Taylor, who with Kathy Paradowski promoted a concert series in North Tonawanda for seven years before moving it to Lockport this year, said a loss of liquor sales “would pretty much end it.”
“We never had that problem, though I don’t know that anyone is immune to stings like that,” Taylor said. “Thursday in the Square has never had that problem, and neither has Artpark, from what I heard. . . . I suppose it could happen anywhere, anytime.”
Another SLA spokesman, Michael Smith, said the beer and wine permit for “JMD of WNY,” the official name of the applicant for the Gateway shows, was canceled for all upcoming concerts because of the underage sales.
“The decoys were able to purchase beer tickets without wrist bands, and were both served beer. The [concert] staff person did not ask how old they were, did not ask for identification, nor did they verify that either of them were in possession of an alcohol wrist band,” Smith said.
In similar cases, the Liquor Authority always cancels a temporary permit, said Crowley.
Under the law, holders of regular liquor licenses are entitled to hearings before penalties are imposed, but that doesn’t apply to holders of temporary permits. The law doesn’t allow for fines in such cases, either, Crowley said.
Mayor Lawrence V. Soos said, “The only thing that bothers me is why they acted so fast.”
Crowley said, “It’s a major violation, if not the major violation, of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law. . . . To us, it’s a public safety issue.”
