50 Cent’s Humor & Harmony Festival Denied Outside Liquor Permit By Louisiana City Council

Isn't too hot to drink outside anyway?

Rapper 50 Cent’s upcoming Humor & Harmony Festival hit a major roadblock as the Shreveport city council voted against allowing public alcohol consumption at the event, KTBS reports.

The 5-2 vote for Resolution 109 received mixed reviews from council members, some of whom raised concerns about safety. Others felt the denial would have economic consequences. Councilman Gary Brooks expressed issues with clean-up and security and what the overall benefit would be.

“I don’t see any tax benefit from people drinking outside,” Brooks said. “I just don’t see this being a good idea at all.”

The plan proposed by Councilwoman Tabatha Taylor would have allowed the open container zone to extend to the Red River District, consisting of Stageworks of Louisiana and Independence Stadium, during the upcoming festival. The festival is scheduled for August 8-11, with an estimated 60,000 visitors attending.

According to KSLA, Taylor said outside alcohol consumption is typical for the city so it wouldn’t be a problem at the Humor & Harmony Festival.

“We’ve passed an open container regulation,” she said. “We’ve done amendments and ordinances to suspect the rules for alcohol 215 plus times since 2010 with the city of Shreveport administration, so I thought with the number of people that were coming into the City of Shreveport that this would be a workable plan because we’ve done it before.”

“I just think that sometimes fear, false information appearing real, you know, let’s see if it works. If it doesn’t work, then we have a capable police department that can take care of whatever,” Councilman James Green said. “And I know they can take care of four blocks.”

Other council members like Ursula Bowman wanted to make sure the crowd can control be controlled “and the crowd doesn’t control us.”

The proposed open-container zone would have gone into effect from 5 p.m. on Aug. 8 to 3 a.m. on Aug. 9. City Attorney Marcus Edwards said at least 10 vendors were scheduled to sell alcohol in the zone if the measure passed. Since the resolution did not pass, festival participants will have to finish their drinks at Stageworks prior to walking outside to stay in compliance.