Daughter's 16th Birthday venue help! Post Reply

[OJDavies]

Hi!
Could anyone recommend a good venue for my daughters 16th Birthday party? She is keen to have a party with 50+ friends with a DJ. Our issue is that we'd like to provide them with some 'controlled alcohol' to help reduce the likelihood of it being smuggled in...! Most bars/ restaurants don't have a license to do this. We'd rather avoid having this event at our house if possible!!

Any good ideas for 16ths which are safe but allow them to let their hair down would be greatly appreciated!!!

Many thanks
O

[LastMumStanding]

Have you tried the golf centre on Burntwood Lane?

[sarahsarah]

In reply to petal, it's a good idea to provide alcohol free beer but i bet you'll still have a bunch of drunk 16 year olds wandering around due to the placebo effect ha. have you considered maybe using a local hall? and just providing the booze yourself? I'm not sure if that'll work out cheaper, but there's always a 'BYOB' idea, and just supervise it. either way kids are gonna drink so you could maybe try hire a bar where they can pay and make sure none of them get to drunk orrr..im unsure. let us know how it goes though!

[LastMumStanding]

For what it's worth I'll share some recent experience - despite very strict rules on no alcohol at a recent 15th birthday I found 1) children "pre-loading" and 2) smuggling in alcohol - I found 2 0.5l bottles of vodka in the garden (empty) and 1 behind the sofa!! If they are not confident about enjoying a party without alcohol they will find a way to drink! All I could do was put any obviously drunk guests in a taxi home as soon as I identified them!

[BetteDavisEyes]

I think a 16 year-old is only allowed to drink alcohol in someone's home - you won't be able to find a public place where it's allowed. So it would have to be alcohol at home (and once they step outside your home into the street with a bottle/glass in their hand, you're breaking the law), or alcohol-free elsewhere....

[DomesticJailBreaker]

I had a very similar experience to LastMumStanding a while ago with my then (just) 15yo son's party. We had contacted all the parents to check that they were happy for us to offer a very small amount of alcohol and complied with the wishes of those parents who did not want their child to have any... Apparently as a result of our strictly 'rationing' the booze offered, there was lots of pre-loading (especially by girls who couldn't take it because they didn't eat all evening) and all sorts of shenanigans resulted. More recent parties show a huge improvement - they've all grown up a bit more and the novelty factor of partying has reduced, so they are happy to take a more sensible approach - I think the 14-16 year old period is the worst.

Ideally, we would all do as Petal suggests, but I'm afraid it wouldn't work, in my experience, as there will always be some who will pre-load and/or smuggle booze in (teenagers are VERY skilled in this respect!), and that is worse because they will usually bring in spirits rather than the lower alcohol drinks they would be offered by their hosts - twas ever thus, I seem to remember from my own teen years!

OJDavies, I am pretty sure that there is a licensing law which says that 16 yos are allowed to drink beer, cider or wine, provided they are eating a meal with it. If and when you find a suitable venue which has a licence, the manager will know about this. The golf centre on Burntwood Lane, suggested by LastMumStanding, could be a good bet.