Wichita OKs kids in the city’s 4 largest nightclubs; may add more to the list later
The Wichita City Council will allow children and teens into some of the city’s largest nightclubs, and plans to come back and look at letting them into smaller clubs as well.
As approved Tuesday, only four clubs could qualify for a new type of drinking establishment license, “Large Capacity Venue,” that would allow them to open their doors to persons under 21, who are currently banned.
The only clubs that meet the new ordinance’s seating requirement of at least 850 are The Wave, The Cotillion, The Rodeo and Crown Uptown Theatre.
“This change was requested by The Wave and is designed to provide some flexibility to enhance business opportunities for such venues by allowing minors to attend and patronize certain entertainment events,” said Assistant City Attorney Beth Harlenske.
The Wave operates a drinking and entertainment venue at 650 E. 2nd St. downtown. It’s also the city’s alcohol partner vendor for Naftzger Park.
Adam Hartke, the managing partner of The Wave, also has an ownership interest in the Cotillion.
Council member Jeff Blubaugh questioned why the access to minors would be limited to the four largest clubs in town.
“Mr. Hartke owns two of the four so I’m trying to understand is there any other definable attributes that define an entertainment venue other than (seating capacity),” Blubaugh said. “I don’t know why we wouldn’t open it up to other entertainment venues as well (rather than) let one organization kind of monopolize the rules.”
City staff officials said they limited it to four outlets at the request of the police department.
“We didn’t want to extend this to dance clubs that have a capacity of two or three hundred,” Harlenske said. “We truly wanted this to be for entertainment venues . . . Some shows may be appropriate for minors to attend, some may not.”
The council passed the new rules unanimously, but with the understanding that further meetings will take place between bar owners and the police with an eye toward expanding access for minors at smaller clubs.
Children and teens will be allowed in the large clubs under the following circumstances:
▪ Persons between the ages of 18 to 21 will be allowed in the clubs until midnight on any given night.
▪ Persons under 18 will be allowed in the clubs until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays only. They’d be allowed until 11 p.m. on other nights.
▪ Any shows extending past midnight will have to be 21 and older.
▪ The clubs will have to give the police department advance notice when they’d be open to the under-21 set.
They’ll also be required to have video surveillance and employee training in how to keep legal-age patrons from simply handing off drinks to underage members of the crowd.
The relaxation of rules about kids in clubs is the city’s only significant addition to a larger rewrite of the alcohol ordinance.
The other revisions are designed to bring the city code into line with recent changes to state law.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 5:17 PM.
