Yellowknife (July 21/04) - The capacity of the Folk on the Rocks beer garden got cut in half on Saturday after organizers realized they had made a mistake on their liquor licence application.

Latin guitarist Juan Martin's fingers flew at the beer garden. The Spanish-style guitarist was at many venues and earlier in the week served as an expert tutor.

The beer garden was built to hold 600 patrons, but the liquor licence was issued for a capacity of 300.

The City of Yellowknife's fire department and NWT Liquor Board came to a speedy rescue, processing paperwork Saturday night and Sunday morning to allow the beer garden to open to its intended capacity Sunday afternoon.

Tracey Bryant, Folk on the Rocks' festival director, said the mistake was made by festival staff in filling out the original application.

The mistake was discovered Saturday when a liquor inspector stopped by. Though the beer garden wasn't filled at the time, it was over its licensed capacity by about 100 people.

Beer garden volunteers stopped admitting people immediately in an effort to bring the numbers down. This resulted in line-ups Saturday evening despite a beer garden that appeared half full.

Bryant praised the efforts of the inspector, the fire department and the liquor board in helping them fix the mistake.

"They showed real community spirit and pride in the festival," said Bryant.

Delilah St. Arneault, the manager of licensing enforcement for the NWT's liquor commission, got a call at her home in Hay River from Folk on the Rocks board member Angelo Cocco, Saturday.

"They needed some assistance," said St. Arneault.

To re-issue the licence, St. Arneault needed written confirmation from the fire department of the larger capacity. Mike Lowing from the City of Yellowknife fire department re-surveyed the site Saturday night and sent her an e-mail and a fax confirming the new capacity.

St. Arneault re-issued the beer garden licence for a capacity of 600 people early Sunday afternoon.