Police close Prikið over underage guests, owner criticises response

Police closed Reykjavík nightclub Prikið at about 1am during Culture Night after finding people below the legal age limit inside, mbl.is reported. Owner Geoffrey Þ. Huntingdon-Williams said the response breached the principle of proportionality and an agreement on safe nightlife venues that he said Prikið had always respected.

Geoffrey, who co-owns the venue with Guðfinnur Sölvi Karlsson, said Prikið and other venues in central Reykjavík had faced a rush of young people during the event.

“This exceeded anything we had seen,” he said, explaining that a series of incidents had allowed underage people to slip inside. Fake identification had been a persistent problem for Prikið and other venues, while staff had not always been able to monitor the rear area because people took opportunities to enter unnoticed.

Geoffrey said the venue’s efforts to address the situation were under way when police arrived. Police counted the guests and initially agreed that the measures taken by Prikið were sufficient, he said, but later withdrew that assessment.

“A decision was made to close despite Prikið’s measures on one of the biggest nights of the year,” Geoffrey said. He described the outcome as disproportionate and said the venue had shown a clear willingness to correct the age balance among its guests after the problem was discovered.

He also criticised the fact that neither he nor Guðfinnur, nor the people responsible for the venue’s licence, had been contacted directly. Staff had to contact the owners instead, he said.

Geoffrey thanked the staff, artists and emergency responders who worked during Culture Night and said the venue would continue its work.