Aussie Company Under Fire For Helping Festival Punters Sneak In Booze

We all love attending music festivals, but like everything there are downsides. One of the most oft-bemoaned but unavoidable pitfalls of attending a music festival is dealing with the often high prices charged for alcoholic drinks.

But an Australian company is coming under fire from festival promoters for encouraging punters to sneak their own alcohol into festival sites, providing them with the means to do so using a specially designed, foldable, plastic flask.

As ABC News Radio reports, the founders of Freddy Flask are attracting controversy for urging festivalgoers to “say no to overpriced drinks”, which festival organisers say is irresponsible and ignores organisers’ duty to harm minimisation.

One of the founders of the Freddy Flask, Ricky, who didn’t want his full name used, said the idea for the reusable, plastic flasks came about when one of the co-founders of the company was caught at a festival with a metal flask.

“So this kind of spawned the idea of disposable, plastic flasks that was kind of mouldable. It started from there,” he told ABC News Radio. “And we did our research and noticed that a lot of companies are actually doing it; they just weren’t doing it really well.”

According to Ricky, the company has heard from promoters concerned about their marketing approach. “I’m sure they do have a problem,” he said. “You know, people have been smuggling alcohol into festivals for years.”

“A flask is nothing new. We’ve just marketed it in a way that attracted our demographic. You know, if you go to every bottle-o and most supermarkets all sell flasks, you know, it’s up to people what they want to use them for.”

But festival pros, like Bluesfest’s Brendan Meek, say bringing your own alcohol is banned to ensure the safety and enjoyment of patrons. There’s responsible service of alcohol. Yeah, we have rules of harm minimisation,” he told the ABC.

“Obviously we don’t want minors to consume nor somebody who’s already intoxicated getting more so. You know, we take it seriously because it comes down to amenity.” Mr Meek reiterated the importance of limiting alcohol consumption.

“I mean if you’re there enjoying an act that we bring in from the other side of the world, the last thing you want is some drunk guy next to you or somebody having a domestic because they’ve had too much to drink,” he said.

“Of course they’re [Freddy Flask] targeting young people who haven’t got a lot of cash. But these hip flasks, I mean they’re holding eight shots which is 240ml, but I mean then they’re saying in their ‘frequently asked questions‘ area: we’ll show you six places to hide that.”

“Now that’s 1.4 litres of spirits. That’s equivalent to 48 drinks. Now you put that in the hands of an 18 year old person or younger and they’re consuming that on sly somewhere, they’re going to collapse somewhere. It’s totally irresponsible to encourage that.”

However, the owners of Freddy Flask don’t seem very fazed by the concerns of festival promoters. They recently took to their official Facebook page to share the ABC‘s report, writing, “They see me rollin they hatin.”