Spirited Discussions: A Podcast by Montgomery County Alcohol Beverage Services

Festivals and Special Events

• Jocelyn Rawat • Season 1 • Episode 8

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ABS Special Events Licensing Manager Roddy Aguirre and Parks Activation Director Mike Coppersmith join host Jocelyn Rawat to discuss upcoming Montgomery Parks festivals with alcohol, Parks rental facilities, and the ABS special events licensing program. Play along as guests take a quiz about which events need a license. Wedding reception? Block party? Concert? HOA meeting? Grand opening? The answers might surprise you.

Announcer:

Welcome to Spirited Discussions, a podcast by Alcohol Beverage Services, exploring alcohol products, trends, and policies in Montgomery County.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Thanks for joining us. I'm your host, Jocelyn Rawat. And today our guests are going to help us understand alcohol service at special events like festivals, fundraisers, and personal celebrations. So do these events need an alcohol license? And if so, what kind? What are the host's responsibilities? So to help us with that, from ABS, we have Community Outreach Manager, Roddy Aguirre. And Roddy oversees the Special Events Licensing Program and supervises a team of inspectors that help organizers have successful events. So welcome, Roddy.

Mike Coppersmith:

Hey, good to be here.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So we're also joined by Mike Coppersmith, who is the director of Parks Activation for Montgomery Parks. Mike's Activation team is responsible for creating signature regional and local special events in parks across Montgomery County. So hi, Mike.

Mike Coppersmith:

Hi, thanks for having me.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So Mike, I want to start with you. Can you tell us a little bit more about Montgomery Parks and the special events that you host?

Mike Coppersmith:

Yeah, so Montgomery Park's a pretty diverse park system. We have 419 parks in Montgomery County, so there's literally room for events and programs no matter where you live, work, or play in the county. That's over 37,000 acres, roughly, of parkland. One of the driving forces for Montgomery Parks and our events is to create social interactions and connections through events. That's kind of one of our driving visions for the parks. And so we do that through our signature local and regional events. The Parks Activation Team, which I'm part of, is just one of the many groups who do activities in parks. There's really something for everybody. We have our Brookside Gardens does events and programming, our nature centers, our historical facilities. So we've really got kind of a wide swath of land to cover. And we put out a lot of different types of events. Some of those events are last May. We did our signature, our inaugural Sligo Creek Fest down on the Sligo Creek Parkway down in Silver Spring. We do the Parks Ale Trail annually at Rock Creek Regional Park in Lake Needwood. The Harvest Fest at the Montgomery County Agricultural Park. And then, you know, this year we've got the butterfly experience, which is coming back to Brookside gardens the garden lights at Brookside gardens and, um, you know, Josiah Henson and museum do events throughout the year as well. So there really depending on what your interest and background is, you know, Montgomery Parks probably has an event or program that would be of interest to you.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Wow. That's even more comprehensive than I had realized. And I thought it was comprehensive. Okay. So which of these special events involve alcohol?

Mike Coppersmith:

We've got a fair amount that involve alcohol. One of our more popular ones is the Acoustics and Ales series. And so that pairs together acoustic musical performances and then working with a few local breweries, meaderies to provide the alcohol content at the event. So we've got one coming up on April 4th at Elm Street Urban Park. And then in May, we'll be down at Flower Avenue Urban Park in Tacoma Park. And, you know, there we try to pair, you know, food and drink together with, you know, the local community, food vendors. And then Sligo Creek Fest, which is our, you know, will be in the second year this year. That's on May 3rd. And that really highlights the open parkway program in Montgomery County. So we basically almost a whole mile of the open parkway is closed. Sligo Creek Parkway from Dennis Avenue to University Boulevard. And again, We have a couple stages of entertainment. We're going to have five or six different breweries this year, seven or eight different food vendors, and also about 15-plus Montgomery Parks and planning organizations that really highlight the work that's going on in the county. One of the most important ingredients in beer is water. So the resource analysis team is down there. Last year, they were doing electrofishing to look at what's in our waterways, a nice tie-in with beer. see the eels and everything that are actually living in the creek, something I was not aware of. I won't be walking in the creek knowing that now. But there's a lot of different stuff, kids activities and entertainment down there. And then the Parks Ale Trail, which I mentioned, Lake Meadwood, Rock Creek Regional Park. Beer is a focus of the event, but it also ties in hiking. And so we have two different areas. We have kind of the main festival area with a large stage of entertainment, beer vendors, food vendors, and then there's an over one mile hike to where the Needwood mansion is over near the Needwood golf course. So wraps around the lake and there's some onsite activities and activation. We had roving entertainers last year, accordion player, a living statue that kind of popped out of people on the trail and then another beer garden over there. And so it's really kind of a way to highlight the amenities. You know, we talked about the diverse parks in the County, the rockery, you know, Lake Needwood and you know, have alcohol as part of the event, but not necessarily the sole focus of the event. So you can come have a beer, go on a hike. The kids can go tree climbing with our arborist. There's a lot of different activities to kind of get involved in for that. So those are just a few of our activities that highlight beer at the parks.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Yeah, so I want to kind of carry on from that. You talked about alcohol being a part of the event, but not necessarily the event itself. And I don't necessarily remember parks events having alcohol over the years? Is this something that's new? How or why has Montgomery Parks evolved to include alcohol in its events? Is this something that people are asking for?

Mike Coppersmith:

I think it's something we're hearing from the public and they're asking for. I think one of the things that we noticed, I've been at Montgomery Parks just over three years now, and coming out of COVID, during COVID, we saw the breweries around the county. You know, people were coming out of their homes and looking for a way to get outdoors. And so we saw that definitely in the parks throughout the county through our parks visitation. We saw numbers, you know, go through the roof. I think the brewery saw that as well. If you had an outdoor space, if you had an indoor space, more industrial, it maybe wasn't as, you know, the return wasn't wasn't necessarily there as an outside space. And so taking kind of elements from those outside breweries and then bringing people into the park space. That's really what the activation team is tasked with is just bringing people into these parks. And sometimes they've been under-programmed or haven't been used for events before. So looking at those parks and bringing them in there. To answer your question about what the public's asking for, one of the pieces of feedback is we had our summer concert series last year and we didn't have alcohol at all of those concerts. And we were getting feedback from our attendees that, you know, we would like to have an option of, you know, having a beer, having a glass of wine at these events and knowing that with the regulations, you can't bring it, Roddy, from the outside is that you've got to, you know, we need to offer it on site and have those protocols in place. That's one of the changes that we're making for this year.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. So I imagine that the part of the reason that this is popular in the parks department is that that people know that it's going to be a safe environment. So can you talk a little bit more about what Montgomery Parks is doing to make sure that you are serving alcohol responsibly?

Mike Coppersmith:

Yeah. So, I mean, I think, you know, we have an obligation to be a responsible host. I mean, I think we want to execute our events. We want the attendees, you know, attendees, staff, vendors, participants, everyone to have a safe, enjoyable time and be accessible. We try to take a close look at the type of events that we're doing. So it makes sure that it fits for what kind of our organization mission is and kind of the directive, you know, from our leadership and that it's going to put parks in a positive light and result and serving alcohol responsibly is a huge part of that. One of the other things we'll look at is what are the hours of our event? You know, traditionally our acoustics and ales will be five to seven 30 at night. If it's a, if it's a evening one, 11 to two, if it's during the day. So not going into all hours of the night. Making sure that if there's going to be alcohol at an event, that there is an opportunity for food purchases, that we've got a wide variety of food so people aren't just consuming beer, that they've got food alternatives in that. Working with the vendors in the alcohol community in Montgomery County at the different breweries, making sure that they've kind of got the same vision in terms of serving responsibly that we do. And so coordinating kind of what our expectations are, serving times, wrist banding, IDing, all of those things that kind of go into that. We'll look at the design of the event and the content, making sure that the content is appropriate for the event, making sure people know that there is no outside alcohol before they come. And having staff visible on site is kind of key as well, is that You know, staff just easily identifiable, walking the perimeter of the event, making sure people aren't taking it outside of the different areas. And then if they have a question, they can find staff. And having a solid relationship for us with our park police department, you know, really a partner for the event. They're in tune with what we're doing, what our hours are, what our safety plans are. As part of the permitting process and submitting, you know, our license application to the commissioners, is developing an event safety plan. What protocols are we putting into place? How are we going to make sure that it is 21 and over? We have to stop serving early. Kind of all the different variables that would go into that.

Jocelyn Rawat:

And how do you make sure that people are 21 and older? I heard you say wrist banding. Are you checking at the gate or what's happening?

Mike Coppersmith:

Yeah, so depending on the... One of the unique things about our events is that we are completely out in the open. We're not in a facility... So we don't have the benefit of walls and doors. So trying to replicate that as best we can. So we'll do wrist banding where it's appropriate, but then also ensuring that the vendors are checking IDs at their sales areas as well.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. So if you're attending a parks event, do bring your ID. Don't bring your own personal alcohol.

Mike Coppersmith:

Correct.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. Okay. So, Roddy. There are lots of different types of alcohol licenses for lots of different types of things that people are doing in Montgomery County. But for the purposes of today's discussions, I just want to talk about the ones that govern special events, meaning things that occur once or over the course of just a couple of days. So what are the special events licenses?

Roddy Aguirre:

So, I mean, I just want to give a kudos to Mike and his team over at Montgomery Park State. Do a phenomenal job. I think, you know, every class has a model student and parks would be one of those.

Jocelyn Rawat:

I can see that. Yeah.

Roddy Aguirre:

They, I mean, they just do a phenomenal job in making sure that they're following an alcohol plan and they do their best to work with vendors as well as to work with our offices. But to your question to one days and festivals, these are licenses that are given to nonprofits that want to have an event where there's going to be an alcohol event. It's either served or being sold. And specifically, there's a transaction of money and it's open to the public. So Acoustics and Ales or the Ales Trail, those are events that are open to the public where people can come in and listen to music and have a glass of beer if they want. But in order to do that, they need to have a license. So The difference between a one day and a festival license is a one day, the nonprofit is actually going to be doing the sales of the alcohol, where in a festival license, the nonprofit is going to be hosting different vendors to be able to sell that alcohol. So for example, Montgomery Parks, they have their acoustics and nails and they'll bring vendors, whether that's a state approved vendor or one of the vendors that we have here in Montgomery County, they focus on who the vendor will be and they will actually bring those vendors in. One days are your typical non-profits. You can think even of like homeowners association or churches that want to have an event. So say they have a house of worship that wants to have a bingo night and they want to have wine as well. Well, they would have to apply for a one day license because that event would be open to the public and there'll be a transaction of money for the alcohol being consumed.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. So your team is responsible for education, administration, and regulation of these types of licenses, but you don't actually approve the licenses. Is that right? That's the liquor board?

Roddy Aguirre:

Yeah, that is 100% correct. So we process those applications. We help to develop the alcohol plan in case somebody needs an alcohol plan. We help to regulate it when we do an inspection. So we educate all of our one days and festival licensees But ultimately, it is the Board of Licensed Commissioners that approves those licenses. So the Board of Licensed Commissioners is a quasi-judicial board that is actually appointed by the county executive. And so there are five members who sit in a hearing room and they hear all of these one days and festival applications and they will approve them. So that is why we ask every single person who's applying for a one day or a festival license to submit it 14 days in advance because it needs to be approved by the board and the board only meets twice a month.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. Well, that's interesting. So I'm thinking about that. You're talking about nonprofit organizations and the liquor board also approves licenses that would be for a restaurant or a beer and wine store, somebody who is more of a professional in the alcohol industry. So you're going to assume that someone who runs a restaurant has some level of expertise in serving alcohol. But someone who works in a nonprofit organization or who is a volunteer in their community association, that person might not necessarily be an expert in serving alcohol. So what do you do to make sure that someone who means well actually has the skills to do well when it comes to serving alcohol responsibly?

Roddy Aguirre:

That's a great question. So we educate, educate, educate. Whenever an application comes in, my team reviews the application and they see that they have to submit an alcohol plan. So they review that alcohol plan and they use their skill set to be able to say, yes, this alcohol plan actually makes sense. So obviously, if you have an event that's only 50 people, And the 50 people includes children. It's going to be very different than if you have an event that's 10,000 people where there's also going to be children. Right. So if your alcohol plan for 10,000 people is like, well, we'll just check IDs. We'll have a lot more questions to ask because it's 10,000 people. How are you going to secure the perimeter? Right. So like, for example, Montgomery parks, you do a great job. Obviously they're outdoors, but they have signs around the perimeter that says no alcohol beyond this point. So we want to see things like that. Of course, you know, The best way to learn is to get educated. And so my team actually goes out and do the inspections. In case there's something that needs to be rectified, in case there's some sort of miscommunication, my team will actually go there and just educate the licensee or the festival holder of the license so that they can actually address the issue while the event is happening. And then the next time they apply, they are ready and set with that added educational piece on their part.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. So that's good to know you're actually on site. It's not just set it and forget it. Correct. You're there making sure that there's some compliance happening.

Mike Coppersmith:

I think too, if I could just add, you know, I think that's been one of the benefits for us is that it's the relationship with ABS and the inspectors and that it's not from a, we got you standpoint. It's a, what are you seeing? What do you recommend for us? And what can we do better? You know, we have our events and we try to get out to other people's events and check out what the Roddy and the team, you know, they're at events and programs throughout the county. So be able to provide that feedback to us is extremely beneficial. Love a good partnership.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So I want to go back to the beginning of this conversation where you said that a license is needed any time that someone is selling alcohol, but that private events don't need a license. And that seems like it should be straightforward. But when you start adding special circumstances and other types of parameters, I think it isn't always so clear. So would you mind playing a little game with me where I give you some scenarios and you tell me if it's going to need a license or not? Yeah, let's do it. Okay. And Mike, you can play along too. I think you might know some of these answers since you're a power user of the program.

Mike Coppersmith:

I'll do my best. There you go.

Jocelyn Rawat:

All right. So in the first scenario, a homeowners association is having a cocktail reception in the community clubhouse after the annual meeting to welcome new members. They're providing one drink per person.

Roddy Aguirre:

Yeah, it seems like you would need a license, but actually because it's an event where they're only providing one drink per person only to those members, it is a technically a private event. So they wouldn't have to have a license for that.

Jocelyn Rawat:

It's a private event. Okay. So sticking with the homeowners association, because I think this is a lot of times where it's not necessarily so clear. Let's say that now they're going to have a street festival to celebrate the community's founding. And as a part of the street festival, they plan to have children's activities, craft vendors, and a local restaurant that's going to be selling food along with their signature margaritas.

Roddy Aguirre:

Oh, yeah. Not only would they need an alcohol license, but they probably want to talk to DPS as well to get a few more licenses. It's open to the public, right? There's a street festival, so we would require a festival license for that.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. And if they need help, they can come and talk to Mike. Okay. Okay. So switching gears, let's say that a couple is having a wedding reception in their backyard. They've invited 50 guests and the family plans to do all of the cooking and bartending themselves.

Roddy Aguirre:

Yeah, we actually get this question asked a lot. They call our offices and they ask, hey, I've been told that I need a liquor license. And we asked them, what type of event are you having? And most of the time they say, well, we're having a wedding and it's, you know, it's a private guest list. We're like, hey, well, that's kind of your answer because it's a private event. You don't need a license. Some of these venues will require you to have an alcohol license of some sort. And so what we tell them is, hey, we can't give you a license, but, you know, try to reach out to a caterer so they can provide the alcohol for you.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So let's say this same wedding reception, instead of having in the backyard, they're going to have it at Brookside Gardens. Does that change anything?

Roddy Aguirre:

Yeah. So, you know, because it's a different place, even though it's going to be held in a different place, it is still technically a private event. Now, some venues that host wedding receptions or other sort of gatherings, they might require an additional license that could come from as a caterer's license, but they wouldn't necessarily need a one-day or a festival license from us.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, so if it were at Brookside Gardens, then I assume that Montgomery Parks would have some of your own regulations in place.

Mike Coppersmith:

Yeah, so this is something that comes up at Brookside Gardens a lot because they do do a lot of weddings and celebrations, retirement parties there. And so one of the requirements at Brookside is that you hire a professional bartender, provide a TIP certification, to make sure that they're certified to serve the alcohol. We don't allow clients and guests to serve alcohol themselves. And then one of the additional things is there's an event coordinator there that'll help you navigate the process depending on what you want to do at Brookside Gardens to work with the licensing.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. And that's probably fairly typical. I would think of private venues, right?

Mike Coppersmith:

That's correct. Yep.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. All right. So this is the one I think of as like the double jeopardy scenario because there's a lot involved in it. So let's say that we have a fresh up-and-coming band that's working with a promoter. And together, they've rented a private event space for a concert. They plan to charge admission at the door and have a cash bar.

Roddy Aguirre:

Yeah, there's a lot of layers there, right? So first, it's an up-and-coming band. We want to support our bands, right? Especially if you were in a garage band like I was back in the day. But the reality is that it's not a nonprofit, right? Because there's no nonprofit there, even though they're wanting to get funds for something, they cannot get a one-day license. They cannot get a festival license for us. So though they are planning to charge, which is what one of the requirements for a one-day license would be, because they're a nonprofit, they wouldn't qualify for a one-day license or for a festival license. So typically what we would do is we would refer them to, hey, have you thought about bringing some sort of licensee with Montgomery County to help you with the process and to help you with the alcohol sales here?

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, so maybe it could be a couple of ways that they could go with that. Not that they can't have their consort, but they could partner with somebody who has an annual license, like a restaurant. Correct. Or they could probably partner with a nonprofit, right?

Roddy Aguirre:

Yeah, they could also partner with a nonprofit if they want to do that.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Raise funds for cats and dogs or something like that, right? Okay. All right, so I'm on to the last scenario here. So let's say that a house of worship is hosting a wine tasting event to raise money for youth programs. They're selling tickets in advance of the event. And those tickets include snacks and two glasses of wine.

Roddy Aguirre:

That sounds like an awesome event and kudos to them for doing something like that. Because they're selling the tickets, right? There's already a transaction of money over there and the ticket price actually giving you two glasses of wine. So by definition, they are doing a transaction of alcohol because the house of worship and most likely will be a nonprofit and therefore they would need to get a one day license from us.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. So yeah. So as we think through these scenarios, The answers really aren't necessarily so easy. So if people are still unsure about their events, what can they do to learn more?

Roddy Aguirre:

Yeah, absolutely. So they can go to our website, montgomerycountymd.gov/ abs, but they absolutely can call 240-777-1999. And they will actually get to speak to one of our community outreach inspectors who work nine to five on processing these applications. They can ask more specific and nuanced questions for their specific event.

Mike Coppersmith:

And I can vouch for that, that they will answer the phone and they will call you back and provide answers that you need.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, that's good. That's always good to hear.

Mike Coppersmith:

Good to hear.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So Mike, so I'm wanting to come to all of these events that you've mentioned, but that was a lot and we've only been talking about it for a few minutes and I've already forgotten because the list is so long. So what's the best way to stay informed about upcoming events?

Mike Coppersmith:

We have a very active social media, Facebook and Instagram. It's at Montgomery Parks. Montgomeryparks.org online has a calendar listing of all of the events. Everything from Nature Center to Brookside Gardens to park activation events to anything that's happening in the parks will be on those calendars.

Jocelyn Rawat:

OK, and what about renting the parks for special events like we talked about with the retirement parties or the weddings or something like that? How would people go about renting an event where they would want to serve alcohol?

Mike Coppersmith:

So we have Brookside Gardens, which you could, you know, from that from Montgomery Parks dot org, you can reach out to Brookside Gardens from their page. We also we have a couple of different event centers. We have Rockwood Manor and the lodge at Seneca Creek. You know, those are more wedding type facilities for those retirement parties. The other thing we do is we have park activity buildings, which for birthday party celebrations kind of fit. You know, they're scattered throughout the county in different park locations. And for those, you can contact our permits office. They'll also navigate you through the through the permitting process as well with what Montgomery Parks requirements are as well. And you can contact them at 301-495-7000. 2525 and they'll get you headed in the right direction.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay. Lots of ways to have fun. Thank you, Roddy Aguirre and Mike Coppersmith for participating in today's spirited discussion.

Mike Coppersmith:

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Jocelyn Rawat:

If there's a topic you'd like us to cover on the podcast, email us at abs.spiriteddiscussions@ montgomerycountymd.gov. And thanks for listening.

Announcer:

Alcohol Beverage Services is the alcohol wholesaler of beer, wine, and spirits for Montgomery County, and it operates neighborhood retail stores. ABS also manages alcohol licensing, enforcement, and education for more than 1,000 businesses. Its profits are used to pay for resident services that otherwise would be funded by county tax dollars. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County Government. Connect with us via cable, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube by searching for County Cable MoCo.