Traci L. Toomey, MPH, PhD¹, Lindsey E. A. Fabian, MPH², Darin Erickson, MA², Linda Fletcher², and Alexander C. Wagenaar, PhD². (1) Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, 1300 S. 2nd St, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454, (612)626-9070, toomey@epi.umn.edu, (2) Alcohol Epidemiology Program, University of Minnesota, 1300 S. 2nd St, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015

Community festivals are annual celebrations where alcohol is often served. The potential for illegal alcohol sales to underage and obviously intoxicated individuals is high at these festivals. In an assessment of 50 community festivals in 2000, we found that 90% of festivals sold alcohol to individuals who appeared to be obviously intoxicated and 50% sold to individuals who appeared to be under age 21. We conducted a demonstration project to assess two interventions targeting policy changes at community festivals to prevent illegal alcohol sales. Each intervention was implemented in four different communities. The first intervention was a community organizing effort that resulted in community-level policy changes in three communities and policy changes at the festival level in the fourth community. The second intervention was a training program. The trainer worked with key festival decision makers at each festival to encourage the festival planners and beer vendors to voluntarily adopt responsible festival policies surrounding alcohol sales. All festivals implemented alcohol control policies at the festival and vendor levels. To assess likely effectiveness of these two interventions, pre- and post-intervention pseudo-underage and pseudo-intoxicated purchase attempts were made at the eight intervention festivals and at 27 comparison festivals. Results of this study will be presented along with recommendations for working with community festivals to prevent illegal alcohol sales.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will able to

(
• Describe the likelihood of illegal alcohol sales at community festivals. (
• Describe recommended alcohol control policies for community festivals. (
• Discuss potential interventions for preventing illegal alcohol sales at these events.

Keywords: Alcohol,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.