VANCOUVER -- All-ages concerts are a sizable chunk of Vancouver’s Rickshaw Theatre’s business, but the East Hastings Street venue will soon have to tell the kids to go home.

Under a new policy from B.C.’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch to take effect Jan. 15, liquor primary licence-holders operating as nightclubs, such as the Rickshaw, will see their ability to host all-ages events compromised.

Until now, the Rickshaw has been able to regularly request temporary de-licensing allowing it to hold all-ages shows as long as its bar was closed and kept under lock and key for the duration of the event.

General manager Mo Tarmohamed said the theatre is looking at a loss of five to 10 per cent of its business. He is considering appealing the LCLB’s new rule.

“We’ll try to reinforce that all-ages shows have never been a problem at the Rickshaw, especially since we have received the liquor primary licence (in 2011),” Tarmohamed said. “We don’t really see the reasoning behind the new directive.”

The new policy will restrict venues to between four and six de-licensing applications per year, as long as the events have nothing in common with the venue’s normal operations. Simply put, the Rickshaw will be allowed to host up to six all-ages events per year as long as these events are not music-related.

Other venues that regularly host all-ages events, such as the Vogue Theatre on Granville Street and the Rio Theatre on East Broadway, will not be affected by the LCLB’s new directive.

Both venues operate under an entertainment licence similar to civic theatres like the Orpheum and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which have stricter operating rules but allow minors even during licensed musical events.

The Commodore Ballroom, which benefits from grandfathered liquor and food primary licenses, said it will see minimal impact from the new rule.

One of the LCLB’s main arguments in the liquor primary licence amendment sent out in late November is that minors had been showing up intoxicated at all-ages events or had been seen drinking before the concerts, which is considered a safety problem.

“The changes to this policy are a result of general concerns by local governments, parents and police concerning all-ages events at liquor primary nightclubs and bars,” Minister of Energy and Mines, Rich Coleman, who also handles the LCLB, said in a statement sent to The Vancouver Sun.

Tarmohamed said the LCLB’s underage drinking rationale doesn’t hold up and that security personnel will routinely deny access to intoxicated individuals of any age at shows labelled all-ages, as is required by law.

Ryan McCormick, a director for Vancouver’s Safe Amplification Site Society, which aims to establish a permanent all-ages music venue in Vancouver, said the regulations ignore the reality that minors will experiment with alcohol regardless.

“Kids drink in school parking lots and shopping malls, outside of 7-11 and in their own backyards,” he said.

“If they get caught, the police deal with it on a case-by-case basis. They’re not going to ban all minors entering a certain park because they caught a few kids drinking at that park.”

But another reason cited in the directive appears to be bureaucratic, namely that the number of de-licensing requests provincewide has increased significantly over the past five years — from 511 in 2007 to 740 as of November 2012.

“Each application may include multiple dates and events, which have to be considered individually, further increasing branch workload,” the directive reads, while also encouraging venues to change their licensing terms permanently rather than apply for temporary de-licensing on a regular basis.

For Rio Theatre owner and general manager Corinne Lea, who recently fought her own drawn-out battle with the LCLB to allow her theatre to retain movie screening rights while serving alcohol at concert-type events, this new directive is yet another sign the B.C. government doesn’t understand the arts and entertainment business landscape in Vancouver.

“To try to deal with (underage drinking) in policy is way too broad of a stroke,” she said. “You’re just assuming that all teenagers are going to do this at all venues when really it should be handled by the venues themselves.”

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