Drunk Womad teens jibe doesn't stack up

Claims drunken teens marred the three-day Womad festival may have been exaggerated.

One letter writer to the Taranaki Daily News said teens appeared to treat the festival as an alcoholic party and the Dominion Post review of the event mentioned the intoxicated "early-teens".

However, Taranaki St John manager Doug Ashby said his 24 volunteers at the event treated relatively few intoxicated spectators and those they did treat were 20 years old, or over.

"A kind of perception happens where you see a group of 20 young teens and they are making a bit of noise and you think, `Hell, there is a lot of drunken teenagers around,' but you forget there are 14,000 other people just enjoying themselves quietly."

Just over 320 people received treatment from the St John volunteers during the festival, a number Mr Ashby said was 50 fewer than last year.

"And 99.9 per cent of those patients were treated for `good time' injuries. These are the headaches you get from being out in the sun, the blisters from walking from place to place. They are the sign of a successful festival," he said.

Taranaki Arts Festival Trust chief executive Suzanne Porter said she did not think drunk teens were a problem and, apart from one incident on Friday night, was not aware of youths causing trouble.

"It was like anything. There is always going to be one rotten apple spoiling the barrel, but the police and security were very happy with the way it went," she said.

The complaints about the teens come in the second year that a discounted youth ticket has been on sale, although Ms Porter did not know if this had increased the number of young people at the event.

While the youth ticket option would be reviewed along with the rest of the event in the coming months, Ms Porter indicated it was something that would stay.

"It is a family festival and we are very proud of the fact we have three to four generations of people on site," she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News