Pub Fest protest goes to Bligh | QLD News | Breaking News in Queensland

I am a little concerned that father Kellt saw the need to go to Anna. One would have thought that an issue like this could have been resolved in house.

A discussion with council amd a little common sense and the matter could have been sorted.

Maybe that is the region trouble, people just won't give an inch.

Typical kill joy.

Thousands of people love the pub festival and it brings tourism to an area that needs every single dollar it can get.

I have good friends that travel from as far as Melbourne and this year even Perth to come and join in the fun.

Get off your moral high horse, no wonder you have a flock decreasing in numbers

It is of concern that Father Kelly saw the need to contact Anna. However, if he has tried all other avenues, what else was left for him?

One would have thought council would have heeded the good Fathers concerns !!

I feel all ratepayers should see a cost analysis of the Pub Crawl e.g, who benefits and who pays.

Reading a book under your bed is a good idea for you on the day. take your limited followers with you. You have a very limited view of life mate.

SOrry guys, my congregation is not diminishing, and by far the majority of reisdents who have spoken to me have said, 'well done, we were thinking the same thing but did not want to be howled down by the vocal minority'. i am not a killjoy, but quite frankly in this day and age of major problems with binge drinking, its an anachronism to have a pub crawl, which models and mimics the real thing that happens every weekend in tragic proportions, with binge drinking and anti-social behaviour. If you read the articles carefully, i am just as much about maximising safety of the event, not something someone would be doing if they were only intent on shutting an event down. I have simply suggested what a lot of people think, go back and rejig it from the foundations. make the event a true festival and not with a pub crawl at the centre.. don't just keep tacking adjustments to an old concept, re-found it entirely. and if it MUST go on, then minimise the harm by low alcohol, enforced breaks and closure at the end of the official event. cheers, everyone

father kelly neglicts to mention the fact of how much money this event brings into this town, or does he forget that how strict the guidlines are for this event, incl licencing and security. All the money just doesnt get spent towards the alcahol factor. What about the taxi drivers, industry staff (security and hospitality), additional shop owners who have the opportunity to get the business that otherwise wouldnt of been available without this event.
It helps this region out alot more than what people give it credit for, but then we have these people (regardless of title or position they think they have in the community) slamming it and stopping the region from getting the boost it needs.

He just doesn't like the fact that one of the main venues for the event is across the street from his church.
The Pub Crawl/Fest/Festival brings people from all over the country to participate in an event that has put our town on the map!! Its all just a bit of fun and yes it involves alcohol, but it is so tightly monitored by security and liquor licensing that it would be safer than a normal friday/saturday night out!! I for one look forward to the costumes and group spirit it involves, not the amount of alcohol consumed... 10 pubs - 10 drinks (not even all of them alcoholic).... I am sure many many people drink more than that on a regular Friday night 'dollaries'.
Build a bridge, get over it and stop trying to can the one fun event in this town.

The 2009 Pub Crawl attracted 10,000.....YES 10,000 people to Maryborough, all spending money not just on alcohol, but on transport, accommodation, costumes, food, petrol and the list goes on.

I work for one of the pubs, and binge drinking is certainly NOT encouraged, rather the bar staff still maintain responsible service of alcohol. The day is not about getting drunk, it is about dressing up and having a fantastic day meeting new people whilst enjoying a drink together.

In addition, the hotels spend massive amounts of money on security and ancilliary services to ensure the safety of patrons.

Let me ask you Mr Kelly, when was the last time ANY church attracted 10,000 visitors to Maryborough? When was the last time you put anything into the local economy, apart from grabbing money from your congregation?

You need to face reality that the church simply does not have control over the population like 50 years ago, the majority of people here are not interested in your rantings and outdated thinking.

Have a look at the poll so far, 76% want the event to go ahead, you are outvoted, outdated and a laughing stock of the community.

Lets make a deal father kelly, you stay away from the pub crawl with its evil, funloving participants and I'll stay away from your place of employment and its associated fairytales and magic rituals....

All the econic benefits would be avaiable if we had a Festival that was truly a festival and not just a pub crawl with a different name. . Also, people should check their facts before they leap to hysterical overreactions. my issues raised about the pubcrawl are more nuanced than the headlines that scream 'priest wants to can the pub crawl.' Even a simple glance can see i am raising wide raning questions. As for the 'brings in a lot of money. Come on, its ONE weekend of the year, hardly a drop in the economic ocean. As for being 'harmless fun' it is a lighthearted mimicing of something that is not light hearted, and that is the real pub crawls and binge drinking that just wreck our society. true, i AM raising questions about the advisability of continuing with the festival IN ITS PRESENT FORM, as its out of step with the bigger issues we are dealing with in society relating to binge drinking. I also think a more family friendly festival would have wider acceptance and appeal.

This one of the few events held in maryborough that not only locals, but people from interstate and overseas come to enjoy a day long celebration that has broken the world record more than once. and this priest wants it canned because he is honestly concerned for the people and the problems it causes. hello! wake up to yourself you narrow minded individual. yes , there is alcohol involved and thousands of people. there are also police all over the place to control situations which may get out of hand.. just the same as pubs and clubs every weekend. clearly he does not realise what a massive impact the crawl has on local business's. and not just pubs. hotels, restaurants etc. im sure all the people who attend this event are be in good spirit, dress up, have a good time with mates and meet new people. its not all about getting plastered. just because its a pub crawl doesnt mean every single person is out to drink themselves to silly. i moved up here from sydney, last year was my first time participating in pub crawl. I had a blast! seriously i dont know what is in this guys head. but why try and stop such an amazing day simply because 'he doesnt agree' with it. Sorry, but i think hiding under your bed for the day will be the best option. you might be offended if you actually join in on the fun and see people smiling and having a fantastic time!

You stick to your church stuff and leave ONE day a year to the happy people who participate in the best event the Wide Bay area! I don't drink alcohol in your church so don't preach in my pub! Look after your own flock. I am a regular Pub Crawler and I've seen more violence at the local football games than I do on the Crawl.

To Sentinel from Maryborough:-
Vocal minority? Ten Thousand people plus are predicted to attend the Pub CRAWL. That's almost half of the population of Maryborough. I'd say that a happy MAJORITY. Take a good look at it Sentinel. YOU are the very vocal minority here. You could always put a stall out front of the Catholic church and sell tickets to heaven or better still put on a fancy dress and participate in the festivities.

Sadly I don’t think we are going to be seeing Father Paul Kelly at the Pub crawl/fest. I would gladly shake his hand and have a friendly conversation over a cold beer with him and 5000 or so other happy, legally aged and free willed champion individuals. We like to call ourselves the “vocal Majority” Father re the vote results, FACT. But alas, with such a negative attitude towards this great event Father Kelly's individual right to participate should not be taken up and his valuable time could possibly be used more effectively trying to partition his own leadership to stop the unfortunate deaths of thousands from Aids, Allowing the use of condoms or to open up their positions within the church to woman or too people with a different personnel orientation. See Father we can all pick small negative parts of something that on the whole has more positives than negatives to further our argument or to hype up support for our personal agenda. Anyway Paul if you see the Maryborough Pub Crawl/fest light, bring your "Vocal Minority" friends, all people are very welcome. It would be good to see you there drinking responsibly and enjoying this awesome event on Maryborough’s dwindling events calendar. Cheers

For the first time last year I attended the Maryborough Pub Crawl as a work team building function. Our entire staff got dressed up and headed there together and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. During the six to seven hours we attended I did not witness one act of violence towards another crawler, I only saw people laughing, talking and enjoying the day together.

On a typical friday night at my local (not going to name the pub in question) there is at least one fight and I mean at least.

The only issue for our staff was a lack of transport as we reside in Hervey Bay and found it difficult to get back and would love to see buses running or more taxi's from Hervey Bay come down to help out.

And to look at a couple of other points Father Kelly made -
one: rebuilding it and actually making it a different event would mean that we would not be going for world records which makes the day what it is because it is the Worlds Greatest Pub Crawl Record we break every year
two: making it only mid-strength beer - Father Kelly I don't know whether you know this or not but the Sea Front Oval on New Years held an event that only served the public mid-strength drinks and people fought there to.

People are going to fight - unfortunately as much as I hate it, it's human nature....but as I said earlier there is such a great spirit in the pub crawl and such good intentions behind it that majority of the people go there for the right reasons.

In this manic world people need an outlet or vice to enjoy - don't take this away

It is a great shame that the only way we can show the world that we can have fun is to go and get drunk, I am confused we spend millions of dollars on tv ads telling our children how distructive Alcohol is , and how much damage it canj do to them . we complain about alcohol related car accidents , just yesterday in brisbane , a man held his pregnant wife hostage at knife point which was alcohol related we see our sports hero"s condemed for for fighting and sexual abuse due to there drinking of alcohol and they are expelled ,We complain about alcoholics who are homeless and sleep on our streets , not to menssion the millions we spend on hospitalisation, rehabs and institutions due to alcohol abuse ,.Maryborough must be in a pretty bad state and desperate for money , its sad that a town has to resort to selling such a distructive drug , just to get an income for there town .And what messages are we sending to our children , on one hand we condem them for drinking . and on the other hand we tell them when you are desoerate Alcohol will fix their problems , cause thats exactly what we are doing when we are in a financial situation we fix it by selling ALCOHOL!! "ALCOHOL" is a DRUG the bigest killer of all drugs , so if it is ok for Maryborough to sell drugs "ALCOHOL" to survive .then the messagg our children are getting is it is ok to sell and abuse drugs themselves is Maryborough That low in intelegence that they cannot find any other way to make an income I WONDER ?

This is a well run event that raises a lot of money for some very good causes as well as bringing thousands of visitors to the town - all of whom have to spend some money there. This is not an "all-in, get drunk, beat someone up" day. Just because some people make some very poor choices on any given Friday or Saturday night in any given town, doesn't mean that we should tar this event with the same brush. For heaven's sake, hundreds of people die each day around the world in the name of religion, but we're not calling for bans on that.

Father, did you just say $1mil in a weekend is "hardly a drop in the economic ocean", goodness me! I'm sure your parish wouldn't sneeze at that amount... Let's take emotion out of the argument at look at the facts. This event is a good thing for Maryborough - 10,000+ people simply don't just come here to get "pissed", nor do they develop the type of destructive alcohol related illnesses you speak of by drinking a couple of drinks in a "fest". Sorry but I'm with the "crawlers" on this one!

I listened to the local news tonight and it was calling on the viewers to support the Race Meeting in Bundaberg. The recipients of the money raised were the local Catholic Schools. Isn't Gambilng a curse on our Society?Often that is hidden. I believe that our Pub Crawl is a well organised event. Come and volunteer at one of the Charity Pubs, meet the people and have good time and more importantly remember "don't be so heavenly to be of no earthly use".

To sammygabriel of southport. All lower case? Not important
Have you ever attended a Pub Crawl in Maryborough? It is strictly regulated. It is not a free for all binge drinking event. People dress up and have a good time , knowing that the money that is raised goes to worthwhile charities.
I can guarantee that the organisers are not low in intelligence and Maryborough does not hold this event to survive.