This vehicle's window was smashed There will be security and a police presence at Vinegar Hill for the next New Year’s Eve, after complaints from campers about vandalism and theft as they saw 2014 in. While the majority of campers had an enjoyable, incident-free night, a picture has been posted on Facebook showing a vehicle with a window smashed in, with the owner expressing the concern “Unfortunately New Year’s at Vinegar Hill is not ours anymore.” They say the gay hotspot was overrun with “intoxicated str8s” and also express disgust at “one of our own stupid drunk twinks” throwing fireworks into the bonfire, and at people. It’s sparked a long thread full of concerns about vandalism, theft and threats of violence, which has led to calls for security to be stepped up, to protect the safe and gay-friendly space those who flock to ‘The Hill’ each year love. 2013 Queen of Vinegar Hill Andrew Morgan says he is sorry some people were targeted this New Year’s Eve. “I did have a small team of people who were looking over the camp, but obviously can’t be everywhere at the same time.” Morgan’s issued an assurance to Vinegar Hill users that extra action will be taken this time around. “There has already been a large discussion at the Queens Council meeting on New Year’s Day regarding security issues of the night,” Morgan says. “It has been agreed that this year there will be a security/police presence at the hill for NYE.” The former Queen says there were surplus funds from the camp, possibly for the first year ever, which have been put into a Vinegar Hill bank account. “I would imagine that the majority of this will need to be spent on security unless we can have a funded police presence. This is something that we will work on throughout the year with the Queen and the Queens Council.” Campers just want to be able to focus on having fun at Vinegar Hill, like mooning the Queen! The Manawatu campground has been occupied by gay campers since 1977, and each December crowds roll in for a packed schedule of events and competitions, which culminate in a massive gay-run New Year’s Eve party and crowing of the new ‘Queen’. There is a clear ‘gay end’ and ‘straight end’ at the large camp-site and relationships between the two are generally harmonious and respectful. However the tension has chiefly been attributed to the behaviour of a minority of young troublemakers from the ‘straight end’. Anecdotally, alcohol theft has been common; while there have reportedly also been incidents of verbal and physical abuse – and even cars driven through tents.Morgan makes it clear that Vinegar Hill is a public camping ground and people can’t be prevented from attending the New Year’s Eve party. “Times are a changing out there, the barrier between gay and straight is being broken down and we can no longer expect that the camp is ours and ours only as we could say 5-10 years ago when I started coming to the camp," he says. “Responsibility of campers' property and sites ultimately comes down to a personal level, I know at the 'Hilton' and further along the camp we had people stationed all night to watch over these areas pre-empting any issues before they happened and had no issues at all. Just a thought for the future.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 9th January 2014 - 11:07am