Popcorn Festival has been Valparaiso's annual festival for 27 years. It has always been the one time of the year when the residents of Valparaiso, Porter County and many surrounding communities could get together for a day long "Party in the Streets."

As with any large gathering of people, we have, from time to time, had some problems with drunk or generally rowdy people getting out of hand, but it has always been a minimal concern. It has been and still is a very well behaved crowd.

With machine like precision they visited each alcohol serving establishment in and around the downtown area looking for, and in many cases finding, the least little reason to close them down for the remainder of the day.

This was a first! Never had anyone interfered with Popcorn Festival, much less virtually closed it down!

Bar by bar, people were told to put their drinks on the tables and exit the building. Having no where else to go, they either went home or drifted up to the North Side Tap where the staff was preparing largest outdoor charity event of the season.

By 8:00 pm everyting was rolling along pretty well. A large number of people had gathered outside and paid their $5.00 charity donation to gain entrance, the band was playing to a crowd of dancing fans & 17 security officers, and the beer wagon was open for business. Inside, the bartenders were pouring drinks for a smaller group of people who preferred sitting.

The lady friend I was keeping company with that evening had gone outside to mingle for a bit. At around 8:15 she came storming through the door and dashed around the bar to tell me, "Excise just shut the outside down!" She was absolutely livid!

Naturally, it didn't take long for Indiana Excise Police Officer Taylor to officiously shove his way inside through the front door, with an entourage of fire officials and Valparaiso Police Officers to run interference. They did a quick walk through, counted about 330 people inside (NST's legal seating capacity is 450) and proceeded to inform the manager and employees that they were shut down inside as well. Upon hearing that news, the head bartender let out a deep, roaring, "That's #%$*&^@ bullshit!"

Officer Taylor, with his finger still stuck in the bartender's face, replied, "You can thank your Mayor!"

Read the whole story (fair and balanced, for what it's worth) by clicking the link in the left column. The accompanying photographs and transcript of my series of relevant email communications with Mayor Jon Costas (who, of course, denies any involvement), makes for an interesting perusal.