Parents are being urged to warn their teenagers against going to large house parties during the pandemic.
Drinkaware says there are reports of "Longitude parties" being organised by people who were due to attend for this weekend. These parties are in no way connected to the festival itself.
The Dublin festival was due to get underway today but was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Miriam Taber from the charity says people need to realise the dangers of large gatherings:
"Parents should caution their young people against attending and share the information with other parents so that they can make informed decisions."
The warning follows an event in Waterford city last week when Gardaí were forced to break up a house party – which involved over 70 teenagers.
It’s reported the party was set to take place in Briot Grove, Templar’s Hall on Saturday last.
The Waterford News & Star reports that gardaí called to the house following complaints by neighbours.
Gardaí asked the occupants to vacate the premises, however, those inside initially refused to cooperate.
After gardaí threatened to return with a warrant, a large number of teens exited the property before congregating around Templar’s Hall.
The matter is currently under investigation.
Templar’s Hall Resident’s Association believes the incident was not connected to a resident of the estate.
In a statement to Beat News, their Secretary Wayne Lee said: “This was people from outside, thinking that they could rent a house for the night and do what they wanted.
“This sort of behaviour won’t be tolerated by the Resident’s Association and the Gardaí are on top of it as well. If anyone else is thinking of trying the same thing – it will not happen because it won’t be tolerated.”
Wayne says that significant work has been done to target this sort behaviour over the past year, and it has been in decline.
He said: “The Resident’s association got going again last year again and the anti-social behaviour has seen a drop because we have people knocking on doors, people on the street making people aware that they can’t get up to any anti-social behaviour.
“We have families living here as well and it needs to be knocked on the head- that’s what we’re trying to do and that’s what we have been achieving.
“Something like this incident has nothing got to do with the residents in the estate, and could potentially knock us back.”
