Promoters say the 'fun police” are ruining the concert experience by cracking down on liquor sales and making it harder to run family-friendly events where booze can be sold.

It was meant to be a supervised, all-ages gig, a chance for Tauranga fans of popular reggae band L.A.B – young and old – to enjoy their music over the New Year period, those over 18 buying drinks if they wanted.

But problems with the liquor licence meant that the December 30 event had to go R18, leaving hundreds of young fans and their parents furious and disappointed.

Promoter Michael Tucker, of Loop, says he ended up refunding $45,000 worth of tickets to under 18s, although the 8000-capacity concert at Wharepai​ Domain still sold out.

He says it's symptomatic of the situation nationwide, with district licensing regulators becoming stricter around issuing special liquor licences for concerts at venues such as parks and domains.

'It's the fun police at it again,” Tucker says. 'If people are running well managed concerts, with heavy security, a good police presence, good bar management – why can't ... I take my 14-year-old along?”

It wasn't the only liquor licence-related snafu to hit the summer concert scene.

In Nelson, about 100 under 18s were told on the day of the Summer's Day Live concert – featuring UB40, Jefferson Starship and Dragon – that they couldn't come as the organisers had applied for the wrong type of licence.

Alcohol regulation operates at a district level, with district licensing committees (DLCs) deciding whether to grant licences after considering information supplied by the local council's licensing inspector, police and the medical officer of health.

Tickets for the L.A.B concert went on sale back in August. It was advertised as a family-friendly event, with people under 18 able to attend as long as they were supervised by a parent or guardian.

Tucker says a bar services company acting for Loop applied for a special liquor licence, under the 'supervised” category, and there were two meetings with police and the medical officer of health before the application was lodged with the Tauranga City Council on September 12.

He claims the council 'lost” the application for five weeks, and it wasn't until October 21 they were advised that the application would likely be opposed because of concerns about how under 18s would be managed.

That meant a hearing would be needed, to be held in late November – too close to the date of the concert, Tucker says.

Even though they felt they had met all stakeholder requests, Tucker says, they decided to make the show R18, negating the need for a hearing.

'We would have been selling hundreds more tickets to under 18s and pissed off more fans, so we made the call to refund 40 grand-plus worth of tickets.”

Nigel McGlone​, of the council's compliance and regulatory team, says the application fee for the liquor licence wasn't paid until October 6, and there was confusion because the wrong invoice number was submitted with payment.

'Yes, there was a delay, but we wouldn't accept that it was our fault, necessarily.”

McGlone says there were concerns about a lack of information on how organisers would manage under-age people at the event, but he can't say specifically what those concerns were as he hasn't seen the full application.

Tucker insists that his team had 'put all the stops in place” to manage alcohol consumption and behaviour.

This included three levels of security at the gate (46 people were declined entry at another L.A.B concert for intoxication), security and ID checks at the bar queue and the bar itself, alcohol-free whānau zones and plenty of food and free water.

He says Loop has successfully managed concerts in other parts of the country where alcohol was sold and under 18s came with parents or guardians.

'We are 100 per cent for harm minimisation of alcohol at events, but restricting events to 18 years and over is not the solution,” he says.

'This approach will hinder development of our creative culture and affect our event economy.”

He says switching the L.A.B concert designation resulted in 'hundreds of disgruntled mums and dads and young fans''.

'We can't develop culture in this country if we can't make it accessible.”

Toby Burrows of Trademark Live, promoter of the Nelson Summer's Day Live concert, says while the problem with the liquor licence was 'human error” – the organisers applied for the wrong type of licence and only realised at the last minute – he believes there is a general reticence from liquor regulators for family-friendly shows with alcohol sales.

'It has become an issue for us in other regions. It was never a show-stopper [in the past] – there had to be measures around it and there were questions about how it would be managed, but in the last year, we've just been told, ‘no'.

'It's only for special licences – any venue that has a regular licence like the stadiums is fine.

'We find there is an inconsistency in the licence conditions from city to city – some regions allow you to serve energy drinks with alcohol, others don't. Some you can do four serves [per person], some you can only do two. It seems to depend on the public health and police in each region.”

Michael Swan​, of Liquid Events, which provides bar services at 'greenfield” concert sites, says there seems to be a nationwide shift in approach to liquor licensing for such events.

'Wherever we apply for a licence, the landscape is changing in terms of the conditions that are imposed. But they're not all the same – it's not like they're all reading off the same sheet that's come from central government.”

Swan says the biggest recent change has been a push for a maximum of two drinks per serve, per transaction, down from the standard four.

'They're trying to knock it down to two drinks. All that does is blow out the queues, because people finish those two drinks and go back a second time.

'All you're doing ... is causing a bad customer experience, and probably you're actually encouraging people to drink faster and harder – get the two drinks down them, so they can get back in the queue to get another two.”

Swan questions whether alcohol harm is a problem at concerts, compared to bars.

'We have layers and layers of process that mitigates alcohol harm and yet the authorities put the absolute microscope on us and impose conditions that are unreasonable.”

Another promoter, who asks to remain anonymous for fear of getting offside with liquor regulators, says the two-drink maximum rule only encourages pre-loading and smuggling alcohol into the venue.

'It's actually working against the object of the [Sale of Liquor] Act – it's over-reaching. What's the next step, no alcohol at all?”

The promoter says he's travelled to overseas events and alcohol sales aren't an issue.

Here, applications are often only dealt with at the last minute, meaning promoters have no choice but to go along with the conditions presented to them as there's no time for a hearing, he says.

'Health and police are using the process almost to bully you into agreeing to what they want.”

No-one from the national police alcohol harm reduction team was available for comment, but police said in a statement their role is to minimise harm. Each application is assessed on its own merits.

'While we never want to stop people having a good time and enjoying a drink, it is proven that alcohol increases the risk of harm and of people becoming the victims or perpetrators of crime.”

McGlone, who used to handle liquor matters for police in Tauranga, says when under 18s are attending an event, regulators have to be satisfied there are plans in place to minimise their access to alcohol, although he points out that parents can buy them drinks.

'You can't have under 18s walking around ... unsupervised. It's up to the organisers ... to make sure they can show ... they've got those management things in place.”

He doesn't agree that the two-drink per transaction limit, which is in place in Tauranga, encourages fast drinking or pre-loading.