Nova Scotia Scott

Things got a little out of hand at New Year’s Eve festivities at the Cunard Centre, Halifax. Around 1:30 am on New Year’s Day, hundreds of people helped themselves to coats because coat check clerks were retrieving them too slowly. Or maybe there weren’t enough clerks. Or maybe some of the party-goers had had too much to drink. (I suspect the latter.)

[V]iolent revellers dismantled the coat check at a New Year’s Eve event at the Cunard Centre in Halifax.
[…]
“There was probably a dozen people that jumped over the coat racks and just stormed the coat check area and tipped over a bunch of coat racks,” said Robert Risley, president of RCR Hospitality Group, which runs the Cunard Centre, near Pier 21 on the waterfront.

It may have started with a dozen, but it quickly escalated.

About 3,500 people attended the party, Mr. Risley said by phone on Friday.

There were 15 people working the coat check and 33 security guards on duty.

According to several witnesses, the “security guards” didn’t actually do anything to restore order or protect bystanders when the melee broke out.

Christina Copps, 26, still hadn’t returned to her apartment Friday morning because her keys were in the coat she lost at the New Year’s Eve party.

“People were punching each other; staff were crying,” Ms. Copps said in a phone interview. “It was absolutely insane.

“I was almost knocked out by two guys. They were punching (each other) and I had to duck.”

Today’s Halifax Chronicle-Herald carries a lengthy front-page report on the ruckus, complete with photos of erstwhile carousers who returned to the Cunard Centre on Friday to line up once again for their coats.

Two weeks ago, the province imposed a minimum drink price of $2.50 in hopes of curbing public drunkenness. I’ll bet the Cunard Centre charged a lot more than $2.50 for its New Year’s Eve drinks.

Click here for the “Cunard Centre 08/09 New Year’s Fiasco” Facebook group.

Tags: Cunard Centre, Folly, Halifax, Nova Scotia