Preventive measures help tame festivals with liquor

In Tarentum, there is no beer.

At least not in the parks and streets since last month, when council banned the sale of alcoholic beverages on public property. The action resulted from complaints about the Tarentum Festival, sponsored by Highland Hose Company from June 12-14.

Residents' complained about festival-goers trespassing on property and urinating in public. Also, a fight erupted in the crowd of nearly 5,000 during a rock concert. Police Chief Bill Vakulick said the fight could have escalated quickly into a riot had police not acted quickly.

Other festivals in the Alle-Kiski Valley, however, serve alcohol, but officials never experienced similar problems, according to their organizers.

One of them is the Italian festival in Vandergrift, scheduled for Sunday at Kennedy Park.

"To the best of my knowledge, I do not recall any alcohol-related incidents with the Italian festival," Vandergrift police Chief Joe Caporali said.

"Ours is a controlled environment because we're in a park," said Len Collini, president of the Vandergrift festival committee. "I don't know what Tarentum does, but ours is pretty much family-oriented. They are celebrating their heritage."

Collini said the one-day festival, which includes an outdoor Catholic Mass and offers strictly Italian food and entertainment, has attracted as many as 10,000 people. In the past, the festival featured nationally known singer Al Martino. This year's headliner is Julius LaRosa.

"We are geared to the older people," said Brian Putignano, a member of the committee. "I mean, Julius LaRosa is 80-some years old, so he's not going to be drawing in younger people. We have a lot more older people, and I guess they limit themselves, while the younger crowd just drinks more."

Collini and Putignano said entertainment is a factor. Collini said he suggested bringing in well-known Pittsburgh rhythm-and-blues singer Billy Price this year, but the committee decided against it.

"This year they wanted to bring in Billy Price but we said; 'He's not Italian, so we can't bring him in'," Putignano said. "If we bring Billy Price in at night, you're going to be bringing in a younger crowd, and there's going to be more drinking and probably more problems."

Caporali concurred, saying entertainment is a factor regarding festival-goers.

"I'm sure if you had somebody like Steppenwolf playing down there, instead of someone like Connie Francis, maybe it would be different," he said.

The Tarentum festival had some food and craft booths but far fewer than in the past, according to Vakulick and other officials. The event also featured rock, as well as country, bands as entertainment.

Putignano said holding the Italian festival at Kennedy Park, which is set apart from the surrounding neighborhood, allows the committee to control people leaving with beer or wine and to prevent festival-goers from bringing in their own liquor.

"We don't allow anyone to bring alcohol on the festival grounds." he said. "We're the ones selling it, so we are the ones deciding who gets served and who doesn't."

Although held largely in Riverview Memorial Park, the Tarentum festival also included a part of First Avenue as the grounds, bringing the festival closer to residents' homes.

Firefighters were selling beer by the cup, but borough Manager Bill Rossey said the open atmosphere made it more difficult to keep people from walking around and drinking. Residents also said that some people were buying one beer, then going to their vehicles to pour beer that they had brought into the same cup.

"That's part of it -- they can just take off and go anywhere," Rossey said. "If they were closed in and had one way in and one way out and police checking everyone, you could stop that. Is that the answer• I don't know."

Such a set-up seems to have been the right answer for Ethnic Days in East Vandergrift, which had alcohol-related problems in the past, said Caporali. His department provides police services to East Vandergrift under a contract between the communities.

"There were alcohol-related charges for things such as disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, people getting into fights, a lot of verbal confrontations," he said.

Caporali said the celebration is held on town streets -- creating the same policing problem that Tarentum encountered. This year, however, the Ethnic Days committee decided to have a designated drinking area, in which people had to stay to drink and could not bring in their own beverages.

Messages asking for comment from Chris Zelonka, chairman of Ethnic Days, received no response.

Caporali said the change seems to have made a difference.

"To me, reading the reports from the two days of the festival, it seemed to have the desirable effect on the behavior of the crowd," Caporali said. "So, I think it was a step in the right direction. It was my understanding that the East Vandergrift Ethnic Days committee had some of its members down there, making sure that nobody was leaving the designated drinking area."

In New Kensington, the Festa Italiana -- sponsored by Mount St. Peter Roman Catholic Church -- also serves beer and wine.

Monsignor Michael Begolly, pastor, said there has been no trouble at the festival because of alcohol.

"We have never had a problem," Begolly said. "We don't advertise it. Ours is a family festival. The focus is on food and fellowship. The fact that we serve wine and beer is secondary to the whole festa. People don't come here to drink; they come here for the food and the festivities."

Another factor that everyone agrees that helps to prevent problems is plenty of security.

Police walk through the grounds of the Mount St. Peter festival, said Begolly.

Westmoreland County sheriff's deputies also are used at the Vandergrift and East Vandergrift events to prevent trouble.

"Any time that there is a gathering, such as the festivals, where alcohol is being served, there is the potential for problems," Caporali said. "And, with the crowds that are there, there is the potential for problems to escalate, so it is a concern."