After the tragedy in West Balkán (Budapest), the state government has aggravated the legislation considering the operation of such discos and clubs. The local government in Debrecen held a conference on the same issue, forming the local rules in line with the upper-level regulations.
As László Papp, Dr., Vice-Mayor for Economic Affairs told, summer festivals and other programs have gained more and more importance in Debrecen in the last few years. The organization of these is not easy – the demands of the organizers and the audience should be served as well that of the local citizens. The first step of the regulations was the limitation of the opening hours and the selling of alcoholic drinks on a territorial base applied first in 2008. From that time, this set of regulations turned out to be not perfect as the operators of some places found their way to break the laws. The upper-level regulations meant a loophole for the local ones, at least until now. As the vice-notary Zoltán Faust, Dr. informed us, the actual stricter regulations are the following: the events with more than 300 people indoors or 1000 people outdoors have to be officially authorised by the notary, the fire department, the health department (ÁNTSZ) and some other authorities. This means that the whole authorization process should be started 2-2,5 months before the planned event. Zoltán Fauszt also told that the regulations of Debrecen serve as an example for other cities.
