The Buzz: Some had to fight for their right...
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
By Ben Cannon
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-It was a day that most attendants will mainly remember for the pluses: warm sunshine, plenty of snow and, yes, a crowd moving to a deejay’s music until the daylight waned.
Yet the closing day of the winter season at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort on Sunday had a decidedly different feel it than years past, some observed.
On-mountain properties were prohibited from selling alcohol, and a de facto ban on snowball throwing in the base area successfully put a halt to a tradition that in recent years has drawn the ire of not only JHMR officials, but also some business owners. If snowballs had been tolerated in the past, the April 1 (“Gaper Fool’s Day”) damage a snowball inflicted on the new $31 million tram, breaking a window, promptly changed resort policy.
A resort spokesperson said the decision to bar alcohol sales on the mountain was not an attempt to deny a crowd remembering a season that welcomed back the Tram and went out with a banner month for snowfall. The move was made, according to
communications manager Lisa Watson, to prevent people from bringing alcoholic drinks onto lifts, which violates the terms of federal land use.
Following the April 1 snowball incidents, resort brass shut down Nick Wilson’s Cowboy Café earlier than usual closing day. Nick Wilson’s in years past served food and drink into the evening hours, though the venue was closed by 4 p.m., Sunday.
“I hope people understand the goal was to stop property damage, not to stop people from partying,” Watson said. “There’s sort of a stepping up on our side to better communicate what we expect with regards to alcohol.”
Across from Nick Wilson’s at the Village Café, in previous years the site of an outdoor dance party, no deejay would spin music.
VC owner Dom Gagliardi said, in light of t the party at Nick Wilson’s called off, he and building management agreed it was best to keep things light. “We didn’t want to draw all the attention to our building, which can’t handle that many people,” Gagliardi said.
He had agreed with one resort official to halt alcohol sales if things got seriously out of hand, but the request was never made.
“Every year this gets bigger, and with that comes a bigger responsibility,” said Gagliardi, who noted that a week earlier the resort put on a free show headlined by a Grammy award-winning act. “We can’t forget that, they spent a lot of money and brought in [the band] Ozomatli,”
Four off-hours sheriff’s deputies requested by resort officials (up from two last year) made no arrests Sunday, an official said.
The music that did thump Sunday? It was brought to Teton Village by a rogue production unit determined to play.
“In a time of recession, when people are jobless and moving out of town, don’t you want them to have a good time,” said “Richie Beats” Goodwin, a deejay. PJH
Photo by Michael Bills
DJ?Richie Beats performed at the edge of Cody lot, away from the Tram.
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The Buzz: Some had to fight for their right... | Planet JH News Article: General News
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