On Saturday I decided to join the family for a trip to an Oktoberfest Festival at the Tampa Bay Downs here in sunny Florida, the reason I said that I decided to join the family is because I typically opt out of public events and trade them in for getting some heavy work done with the house quiet. In addition to getting the work done I can also avoid some of the many things that annoy me about going out into public places as well as some of the uncomfortable situations that come up when I go out.
The Oktoberfest fair that we went to was a lot like the ones I went to growing up as a kid, and much hasn’t changed since than except for the fact that I can drink beer while I am at the fair and watch my kids enjoy rides and games just as much as I did when I was a kid. Of course the fair had plenty of the festival foods that I have come to love throughout the years, funnel cakes, corn dogs and giant pretzels. I did have a corn dog and it was excellent btw, oh yeah let’s get back to that drinking beer while watching the kids on the rides and playing games thing, because one of the dumbest things in a long time ties into it.
I guess some jack ass decided that here in sunny Florida that drinking beer and watching your kids on carnival rides should be FORBIDDEN! When we arrived at the fair I noticed a white lattice fence that went down the middle of the Oktoberfest fair, this lattice fence served as the great divide and was protected by enough Sherrifs that the normal person might have thought it was border control.
In order to have access to the food and beverage that they are going to charge you for enjoying you need to pay a cover charge, oh yeah they throw in plenty of porta-potties as an added bonus. However the one thing that is missing from the left side of the fence is the carnival rides, if you want to walk around the carnival games and look at people on rides they don’t charge you for it on this side, and better yet there were a few bonus parta-potties on this side too.
Now the border patrol that was by the fence was in place to make sure that you didn’t dare walk over by the rides with a beer or wine in your hand, and in case you didn’t see the sign laying on the floor that said, “No Beer or Wine Past This Point” than you were fortunate enough to hear it from the border patrol… “That stays here!”, of course in a very kind and pleasant fair going Oktoberfest manor like you would expect to hear or not.
Sorry folks, but this is one of the dumbest fucking things I have ever heard in my entire life. First and foremost it’s friggin OKTOBERFEST a celebration that is known for it’s fine German Beer (that I don’t like) and people partying, I won’t even get all stirred up about how it’s a FESTIVAL. People drink at festivals it’s part of it being a festival.
The thing that really tops the cherry for me and how dumb this entire concept is the fact that any parent that wants to go to a festival and enjoy it with their kids is going to either have to leave their kids unattended in order to go and get a beer or wine to enjoy, take the kids away from the rides to go and get a drink or simply not access the drinking and food area at all.
I wonder if anyone considered the idea that Florida is the state that two children were just reported missing in, Somer Thompson was reported missing on Tuesday and her body was found on Thursday. No right minded parent would leave their children alone in this state for a moment, especially right now when they have no leads and no clues in the Somer Thompson case. As for me, I am ridiculous when it comes to knowing where my kids are and what they are doing at all times. Ridiculous, trust me.
So here I am with two other adults and two kids at an Oktoberfest festival, I work around 200 hours a week and rarely go out, I am a 38 year old that doesn’t drink and drive and had a designated driver in place and a backup plan in the event that designated driver became un-designated ;) I am also a father that loves to see my kids faces when they are on carnival rides or playing games, why in a “free country” am I forced to make a decision between drinking a damn beer and enjoying the time my kids are having on rides?
Overall I had a great time at the fair and would go back and do it again in the future, next time I would make sure we bring someone to keep an eye on the kiddies so I could slip away for a drink from time to time.
Before I get out of hear I want to add that my wife went to a festival last weekend at a church that also had beer and rides, that festival had the same split festival concept going on as well. Leave a comment and let us know what you think about the rules put in place at the Oktoberfest festival that we went to, are the festivals the same way where you live?
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I can imagine that that must have been a thoroughly annoying experience!
All around the world in this day and age are super high security health and safety rules being implanted. It is annoying and one really wonders when it will all stop!
Have you evr been to the Octoberfest in Munich? Judging by the rest of Germany, which is strangley not that obssesed with rules and regulations, the Fest there would be a bit more relaxed! Though it is a bit far from Florida…
danny´s last blog ..Nagroda Nobla z medycyny – jak si? starzejemy?
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Extreme John (4114 comments.) Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 11:07 am
@danny, I am not big on traveling out of the country I hate flying, that is of course unless it’s to someplace like Jamaica
As for it stopping I wouldn’t count on it, it’s just going to get more controlling and worse as time goes on.
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As the pendulum swings back to “family values,” the baby goes out with the bathwater.
We’re in a bind because nobody paid attention to what the fine folks in DC were up to. Not because of drinking at Oktoberfest.
However, since there’s fu^H^ nothing we can do about what’s going in DC (too late for that), we’ll corral all those low life beer drinkers together. See? Everything’s better now.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..7 Ways To Evaluate Blog Post Quality — Tuning your BS detector
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Extreme John (4114 comments.) Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 11:03 am
@Dave Doolin, that seems like a pretty good assessment to me Dave, it’s ridiculous.
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Free country? Don’t make me laugh. Or cry… I don’t remember which way that makes me feel anymore.
But if you think its bad in Tampa, you should have a look at Jacksonville. There’s an old ordinance that forbids serving alcohol within X,000 feet of a church (I forget the details) and when they suddenly decided to enforce it 10 years ago they shut down about half of the nightlife in the city because half the streets have churches on them. Bars and clubs that survived the crackdown were soon infiltrated by the undercovers, and any sort of illegal activity by patrons was used as a pretext for shutting down the whole establishment.
Our band tried to play at a friend’s block party once, and even though we had invited the whole neighborhood and gotten approval with the neighbors in advance, a public school teacher overheard two students talking about it and got in contact with law enforcement. Shortly after our band played that night, the police set up a roadblock around the neighborhood and brought a dozen cruisers in to break up the party. The guy hosting the party ended up spending a night in jail because someone underage brought a six-pack.
On the one hand they killed the music scene. On the other hand, they might have saved us from the next Limp Bizkit
John@Web Biz´s last blog ..A Fond Farewell to Geocities
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Extreme John (4114 comments.) Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 11:06 am
@John@Web Biz, it’s pretty amazing how even with approval of everyone that it would effect something so dumb can such a big deal.
I can go on all day about the entire drinking and partying thing and underage drinking, so on and so forth. The sad reality is that it’s not going to get any better any time soon, if anything it will just continue to get worse as time goes on.
One silly law here, one silly law there. One law here that really doesn’t serve a purpose and another law here, next thing you know we will be like a mini North Korea.
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Sounds like some of the festivals up here. They have ‘beer gardens’
I know at one of the local town festivals, they charge you to get into the beer garden (wristband) and then they sell TOKENS to get beer. I don’t understand this idiotic concept either.
1 – No one under 21 is allowed in the beer garden. What do you do with your kids?
2 – Selling tokens that in turn you have to take to another stand to get a beer. DUMB
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Extreme John (4114 comments.) Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
@Lace, it’s great to see that the dumb idea’s spread further than just Florida.
As for the tokens, some of them do “tickets” here. The answer to that is simple, they do it so you can’t leave with them and have a use for them like you would with the cash in your pocket.
Think about it, how many Vegas Casino tokens never get used because people lose them or take them home. Without a doubt it’s millions.
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This is what I still don’t understand from the United States. That’s all I have to say :S.
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That was so silly with not being able to carry your beer around! I guess every festival is different.
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The whole set up of the place has me wondering whether something happened in Florida that prompted this. A quick Google search for Florida law on drinking at public events involving underage persons yielded a lot of campus codes where drinking had to happen in “designated areas,” but nothing on the history of these laws.
This may have less to do with “Puritanism” – although MADD is a very tenacious organization – and maybe something else entirely. I dunno: things are strange nowadays, that’s for sure.
ashok´s last blog ..Emily Dickinson, “Expectation – is Contentment” (807)
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It is getting pretty bad. The US is not the free land it used to be and if you even bring that up or about how governments in “free” countrys only let people have the illusion of freedom, you are labeled a conspiracy nut. Hopefully more and more intelligent people will stand up and fight dumb laws.
Alan @ Basin Glass Co.´s last blog ..Fakers trying to score some weed?
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That is bloody retarded!!! Around here we simply have the understandable rule that you can’t leave the festival grounds with a drink in hand, and if you do the cops’ll pick you up and stick you in a holding cell for a couple hours, maybe slap you with a not-unreasonable fine to serve as a reminder for the future.
Within festival grounds, however, you can drink, laugh and be merry without the stupid addition of a restrictive fence preventing your movements
Hard Rocking South African@Music Judge´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
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If you can find the law or regulation that was written to justify it, you can turn that around 180 degrees (completely backward) and find what the real objective is. I’m guessing that the stated reason is to protect the children from having to watch adults consume alcohol. Tne real reason is so the children will not be able to witness adults responsibly consuming alcohol.
Most of the millions (no exaggeration) of laws on the books today were enacted and are enforced for one main reason: to make criminals of of otherwise honest people.It is extremely hard to control an honest man.
Two more reasons are control and power, in other words, because we can put up a fence and tell you not to cross it!
It really is ridiculous… and it’s getting worse.
Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Oct 26, Norman Rockwell Museum: Making Vacations Memorable
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That’s a tough choice John. I thought these things doesn’t happen in America.
ZXT´s last blog ..Undelete Files from formatted Flash Drive and Memory Card
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I agree, this is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever heard. Lets leave our kids unattended while a bunch or Carnies eye them up.
Beer + fair rides equals fun.
Did you know they are considering banning alcohol on Sunset beach in St Pete. This is one of the only beaches were you don’t have to smuggle drinks in fake cups in your cooler. Its legal there and all the residents know it and have know it when they bought their homes there and know they are getting older and want to ban it.
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That sucks man. This country is turning to sh%t. This rule was probably made because of drunk idiots who can’t handle their beer, so now the responsible drinkers have to suffer the consequences. Well anyway, there is a lot of dumb and ridiculous laws in this country when you look into it which makes you think, “What were the congressman thinking??”
Kaja@Kajanova´s last blog ..Ingenious Mosquito Vaporizer
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Extreme John (4114 comments.) Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 9:40 am
@Kaja@Kajanova, certainly more than I can count one all of my digits.
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