Mount Maunganui's Blues Brews and BBQs organiser David Mustard has hit back at police criticism of their event held in Blake Park on Thursday, saying,'Their job is policing, not deciding what events and cultural activities people can take part in, in our communities.”

BBBQs organiser David Mustard says police are wrong to criticise this year's event.

A press release after the event from Inspector Karl Wright St Clair criticised the event saying it is structured to encourage binge drinking over an eight hour period.
Karl Wright St Clair says he's seen Blues Brews and BBQs go from a family focused event to one that 'encourages binge-drinking of mainstream beer and wine by mostly young people”.
'The mainstream beers have all been removed,” says David. 'We haven't had any for the last two years.”
The shift to focus on boutique beers and wines and a decidedly blues oriented music programme is a deliberate move to attract an older crowd, says David.
'We are achieving an older demographic, we have significantly reduced the 18-25 year age group. There were a few young people, families, and lots and lots of people having a good time.”

He challenges police claims people were being evicted from the event for being drunk within half an hour of it starting.
Inside the event, bar managers were teamed with security actively looking for intoxicated people and evicting them if their behaviour breached liquor licensing laws.
The first overindulgent and attitudinal patrons were not evicted until 5-6pm, several hours after the event's 2.30pm start, says David.
Police have focused on arrest numbers outside the event and David says they are blaming the event for the drink driving arrests.
'I find it a little bit concerning when they blame us for the decisions an individual makes,” says David.
'Out of 10,000 people, 14 decided to make a bad call and drive home.”
In other drink driving arrests, the arrest is not counted against the bar says David.
'You don't attack the bar they were in,” says David. 'You blame the driver for making the call.”
This year police put two teams on the event, plus traffic police set up check points.
'They put the event under considerable scrutiny,” says David.
'In the past we have endeavoured to get police support and very little has been forthcoming.
'I don't believe we were ever going to get a satisfactory report from them on this. There was a big team of police that arrested anybody that came to their attention for any disorder.
'But out of 10,000 people, only 19 people were sufficiently out of line that came to their attention to be arrested.”
David's view of the numbers is that 9,980 people were having a good time and behaving themselves, and 19-20 got out of line.
'It is quite insidious to say the event might not be salvageable, to me that is quite mischievous,” says David.

Security firms on the night back David up. Internal event security was by First Security, with Tauranga company Aegis Security on the gates.
Aegis staff did ticket checks, ID checks, and bag checks – and cut the wristbands off anyone who was evicted.
'A lot of events we get the people who want their money back or who have something to grizzle about,” says Aegis Security managing director Heather Jones.
Thursday's Blues Brews and BBQs stands out for the amount of people who took the time to complement security on the event, says Heather.
Tauranga manager for First Security Guard Services Gavin Collinson says in his opinion Blues Brews and BBQs is improving from the security view, and this year's was the quietest yet.
'At the end of the day there is always going to be somebody arrested with that many people,” says Gavin.
'Over the years that I have done it, that was one of the quietest ones. Basically it has improved. I was surprised by police comments.”