Rapid City, SD Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

12, Alcoholic Beverages, and builds the city's open-container rule from two separate bans: subsection A prohibits consuming or mixing any alcoholic beverage in a public place, and subsection B separately prohibits simply possessing one in an unsealed container or open receptacle in a public place. Both bans exempt only the premises of a licensed on-sale retailer where the drink was purchased for on-sale consumption. K defines PUBLIC PLACE broadly as any place, in or out of a public building, commonly and customarily open to or used by the general public, and any street or highway, so the ban reaches sidewalks, parks and parking lots as well as building interiors open to the public.

Three narrow carve-outs exist. 035. 20 authorize consumption, mixing or possession, but not sale, of alcohol in unsealed containers on publicly-owned or nonprofit-owned property named in the permit, for no more than 24 hours and no later than on-sale hours allow. Subsections E and F let a licensed on-sale wine restaurant let a customer carry out a resealed, corked bottle after a meal, or bring in a sealed bottle for a corkage fee, without violating subsection A or B, so long as the cork and seal are undisturbed. Outside those exceptions, drinking or carrying an open beer, cocktail or wine glass on a Rapid City street or sidewalk is a straight violation.