Lancaster County, SC Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Lancaster County's blanket alcohol ban lives in the parks and recreation article, not in a general public-conduct chapter, so it reaches only county parks and recreation areas and facilities in the unincorporated county, not sidewalks, streets or other public property. Sec. 24-3(10) states flatly that no person using or occupying a public park or recreation area may possess or consume any alcoholic beverage of any type; the prohibition applies to beer, wine and liquor alike and does not turn on open or closed containers. The only carve-out runs through the county administrator: on notification from the director of parks and recreation, the administrator may allow a specific park or recreation area to be used for a private social function at which alcoholic beverages may legally be consumed, and the administrator sets the place, time and circumstances for that approval.

Absent that administrator sign-off, drinking anywhere in a county park, from a picnic shelter to a ballfield to Springs Park, is unlawful. The same list of prohibited park acts separately bars glass containers of any kind in a park area under subsection (19), which functions as a companion rule for anyone bringing beverages onto county park property. Sec. 24-3 folds this alcohol rule into thirty-eight numbered prohibited acts covering everything from litter to firearms, and Sec. 24-4 sets one penalty for the whole article rather than a standalone fine for alcohol violations.