Teenage disco closes due to overcrowding

A TEENAGE disco in Mooneys had to be shut down on Friday night due to overcrowding.

In a statement Denis Sinnott, general manager of Mooneys said it was clear mistakes had been made on Friday night and apologised to the party goers.

‘Mooneys hire our premises to these young adults and charge them a fixed fee. They then contact the different schools and sell tickets to this strictly non alcohol event. At the time of booking the organisers are told not to sell more than our capacity for such an event which is 400.’

He said that all teenagers entering the premises are searched and ‘no teenager who is visibly intoxicated is allowed on to our premises.’

Mr Sinnott said that the organisers said 300 tickets had been sold and it was agreed that 100 tickets would be available on the door on the night.

‘Ticket holders and the 100 cash paying attendees were admitted before security staff on the doors realised that there was far more that 300 ticket-holders outside the venue and that information we were given was totally inaccurate. As we were now over capacity a decision was taken to open the exit doors and cordon off a sizeable portion of the adjoining laneway as is part of an emergency plan.

‘We here in Mooneys hold our hands up and say we got some things wrong on Friday night but all decisions that were made were made on information given to us by organisers. All decisions were made for the safety of the people attending the event. At no stage did the Gardai attend our venue and the decision to close the event was made by management for the safety of everyone involved.

‘We unreservedly apologise to each and every teenager who at any stage felt scared or uncomfortable at the event. We also apologise to the parents of those children for allowing them to be in circumstances like that and assure them that, as we ourselves have family members attending these events, it is never ever our intention to allow a situation like this to arise.’