On Monday, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger publicly lambasted the promoters of last Friday night’s Barstool Blackout DJ dance party at Memorial Auditorium for promoting “intoxication and wildness,” after 16 local young-uns ended their evening in the emergency room or  detox unit.

According to the mayor, the city dropped the ball by not adequately vetting the promotional material of the 18-and-over rave-like fest. Presumably, someone at the city assumed the “barstool” referred to a breakfast bar, and “blackout” a temporary power outage.

OK, we totally get it that Mayor Buzzkill has to show a zero tolerance for underage binge drinking. But just how out of the ordinary is it for more than a dozen kids to wind up in the drunk tank after a Queen City bash?

Short answer: It depends.

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Staff Writer Ken Picard is a senior staff writer at Seven Days. A Long Island, N.Y., native who moved to Vermont from Missoula, Mont., he was hired in 2002 as Seven Days’ first staff writer, to help create a news department. Ken has since won numerous...

2 replies on “Blotto By The Numbers: Just How Outrageous Was The Barstool Blackout Event?”

  1. Did you mean Skrillex? I’ve visited barstool’s site and even their users have suggested they call the tour ‘blacklight’ not ‘blackout’ due to this issue and other cancellations of the tour.

  2. I wonder if it is worth looking into the amount of security for each of the events you are comparing? Could it be said that there may have been more issues at this particular event because of a tighter security presence?

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