Winfield’s Country Roundup festival will feature full-strength beer for sale in the main concert areas this summer, city commissioners decided Tuesday night.
The commission voted 2-1 in favor of an ordinance that lets the Roundup sell and allow consumption in the grandstand, midway and main building areas of the Winfield fairground. Tom McNeish cast the opposing vote.
"Really what we’ve done is establish an ordinance that will allow for a one-time deal for the Roundup," city manager Warren Porter said. "If it doesn’t go well, then the commission can review the situation and rescind the ordinance."
Roundup officials have said they expect to contract with a company ? probably the local Budweiser distributor ? to handle sales.
Consumption of cereal malt beer ? a slightly weaker version of the regular stuff ? can still be toted in coolers and consumed in fairground camping areas. Coolers of beer in the main performance areas will no longer be allowed.
The new rules are not a "blanket ordinance that would allow consumption or sales" at the fairground, Porter said. Officials from individual events would need to approach the city in order to allow the sale or consumption of alcohol in the midway area for other events.
The Roundup will be responsible for checking IDs and otherwise regulating sales and consumption. Law enforcement officials expect that higher prices per beer and the need to visit the beer garden for drinks will drive down consumption.
Roundup officials faced an easier time getting beer sales at the fairground than organizers with the Wheatland Jam classic rock festival did earlier this decade. City commissioners back then denied the Jam’s request after a public advisory vote showed little support for beer sales.
But the city has relaxed beer rules at the fairground over the past few years and the state legislature made exceptions to drinking rules that accommodate outdoor festivals.
Porter said a festival beer rule approved by the Legislature in the past few years made it easier to approve beer sales at the fairground. In the past, the city would’ve needed to approve a charter ordinance to allow sales.
Charter ordinances include a petition period after passage that requires a public vote on the ordinance if a certain number of signatures are collected in a given amount of time.
"The Roundup fell under the festival legislation," Porter said. "So everything was a lot less complicated."
Neither McNeish nor Roundup organizers were available for comment this morning.
