Duk Duk Daze Will Continue Despite Rowdy Crowd Say Organizers
New Hope celebrated 50 years of Duk Duk Daze this weekend. The celebration turned to concern after reports of teenagers taunting police and causing fights. Organizers had to shut down the festival early on Saturday night.
Duk Duk Daze Security Was Tight
This year, New Hope police took security to a new level. They added an entry fee to get in, put up a physical barrier, added private security and doubled the amount of officers working the event. Their hope was that all of the security would deter juveniles from causing issues like they had the previous year. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“It was a large crowd, which is manageable, a few incidents within that crowd would be manageable but this was a very large crowd, mostly juveniles,” says Captain Scott Slawson of the New Hope police department. “There were enough of them being disorderly to cause a serious problem.”
Mostly Juveniles Causing Issues
Police say a large group of juveniles began fighting and taunting officers on duty. The festival started turning people away due to the park being at maximum capacity. Once the juveniles began fighting, police along with organizers decided to shut the event down early due to safety concerns.
“There will be a number of meetings I assume,” says New Hope city council member John Elder. “This isn’t something that’s going to be solved in one meeting. There is the commitment and dedication by the Lions Club and the city of New Hope to really make sure that this is continually successful whatever it turns out to be.”
No Injuries
Elder went on to say several of the juveniles causing issues were not from New Hope or the immediate area. He also believes they came to Duk Duk Daze with the intention to disrupt. Police issued 10 disorderly conduct citations to those causing issues. However, there were no injuries caused by any of the juveniles actions.
