Statement on Alcohol at Pride

It has come to the attention of Blue Ridge Pride that some individuals are upset that we no longer sell liquor at our festival, and that we have a 3-drink limit. Because these concerns extended to social media, we decided to make a public statement about the decision, which was first made last year.

Firstly, we’d like to say that the rumor that we are limiting “adult beverages” because we are “treating people like children” who all have “substance abuse issues” is patently false. There are several events we host throughout the year where liquor is available, and the festival is the only event in which we provide physical monitoring of alcohol intake. These other events include our monthly Queer Open Mic at Ginger’s Revenge, quarterly Business Alliance mixer at The Radical Hotel, annual Blue Ridge Pride Drag Pageant, and periodic events at supportive breweries and bars, including our sponsors New Belgium and Burial Beer.

Our festival, the largest single-day attendance of any event in Pack Square last year, is a suitable place for a pro-active plan which reduces incidents before they become emergencies in need of response. When someone drinks too much in a crowd of 14,000 it becomes not only a health issue for them, but a potential hazard for others in terms of clumsy or belligerent behavior, which in its worst iteration can escalate into violence and crowd control concerns. Insurance companies know this, which is why they require special riders for liquor. That, alone, is reason enough to have some controls over alcohol in that context.

But the specific controls we put in place manifested due to a conversation with the ABC Commission in the summer of 2023. ABC had concerns regarding past alcohol processes and controls at Pride and let us know that they would be making rounds on the next festival, and possibly other events as well.

In order to save the organization a whole lot of risk, we decided to not have liquor at the 2023 festival. ABC advised that we also needed to have a plan of how we would monitor people’s drinking; we would need more than typical passive monitoring tactics. We settled on a 3-drink maximum monitored by wristband markings, which satisfied them, and helped us to obtain a license for beer and wine/cider at our 2023 festival.

There is much more to the story which involves bars who were upset that a marketing stream was cut off, and other undignified and misogynistic behavior by some, but the long and short is that this was a risk mitigation decision, not a moral judgment on anyone who drinks.

We decided to stick with the decision again this year because last year’s festival was, according to APD, “the most peaceful” they had ever been to of ours. Again, this year, they and many experienced no drunk and disorderly conduct. In reflection, it actually seems absurd that we would offer liquor at 1pm in the afternoon to thousands of people. Why? Cui bono, or who benefits? We learned through this ordeal that Blue Ridge Pride was the first festival to offer liquor at a daytime festival in Asheville and that it was a decision that was proposed by individuals outside of our organization wanting to boost tourism and support the local alcohol scene or “Beer City”.

Let us be perfectly clear: Pride is not Beer City, Liquor City, nor does it exist in any major way to promote one type of business or product or another. Pride is for all LGBTQIA2S+ people, including people who love a good martini, people who think beer tastes gross, people in recovery and people struggling with substance use. Through a diversity of events and venues, we aim to meet as many people where they are, but no one event will meet everyone perfectly.

We know this, and so, at our beverage tent, we had signs pointing people to several locations on the square where they could have additional types of alcohol. And these locations love us. When we gave public notice to Packs Tavern, the general manager said they are so glad our festival is in Pack because it brought them revenue. We are not anti-bar or anti-alcohol. We are just not a bar ourselves.

One comment on social media stated that we “do not know event 101” because liquor can mean big money for nonprofits. We would like to remind people that nonprofits, while they need funding to complete their mission, should have grave reservation about acquiring funding in any major way through alcohol sales; indeed, this could threaten a 501c3 status.

While Substance Use Disorder disproportionately affects LGBTQIA2S+ people, and that is well shown in our recent health survey, we do not cast aspersions on all queer people. In fact, we support harm reduction and choice. We also have grown cognizant, in large part by feedback from others in the community, that our events in the past were too centered around bars, and so we have expanded our repertoire of where and how we host events. This decision has benefited many; our GenPlus attendance numbers in particular have grown, and we are now also regularly attracting younger people to our events.

In closing, we’d like to take a moment to thank all of our vendors, volunteers, staff, board and sponsors who create, according to this year’s Mountain Xpress “Best of”, the Best Summer/Fall event in Western North Carolina. We know that Pride season can be a time fraught with conflict and drama, but ultimately, we believe in celebrating each other in safe spaces that allow for Queer Joy and Queer Liberation.