Open containers are ok’d on closed streets in Downtown Orlando on Halloween night on Saturday, October 31st in an attempt to socially distance. This is especially true and concern when it comes to the throngs of many customed partiers that may come out.
Open Containers Combined With Crowds, Is Trouble “Brewing”?
The vast majority of bars and nightclubs in Downtown Orlando are open for business. Florida is now well into Phase 3 of its reopening. There are no limits on capacity indoors. But with Halloween, on a Saturday this year, there’s suspicion it’s a recipe for instant crowds springing up everywhere you turn around.
A plan to Allow Outdoor Consumption of Alcohol
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said During the Orange County Government Coronavirus Update that the city was working on a plan to allow outdoors consumption of alcohol. This would take place in a designated area of downtown Orlando. But this was out of concern over the expected crowds that night. Yet he didn’t provide any further logistical details.
One-Night Waiver Outlined
Some of the specifics regarding this one-night waiver on Halloween are in an outline by City staffer Samantha Holsten Dyer.
Though alcohol sales are still prohibited outside and on public streets downtown on Halloween, this plan “does allow for the consumption of alcohol [outdoors] so that if someone is inside a business and feels they cannot socially distance indoors, they have the opportunity to move outdoors.”
As on many weekend nights and during bigger events downtown, street closures will be in effect for “areas of the Downtown where many nighttime establishments are located. Generally along Orange Avenue in the Central Business District.” Those closed areas will be where the open container is ok.
