To not understand how this can be allowed without anyone asking local residents?

[treatmelikeamushroom]

Just read a big announcement on our local facebook page saying a 3 day festival with an absolutely enormous capacity is being held on the fields behind my house this summer (my garden backs onto the fields). I don't want to say how big exactly because it's outing (news articles that come up if you google the exact figure) but it's several times bigger than the entire population of the small town I live in! The road access is really bad already and there's really bad traffic that causes hour long delays when the annual county show is held which is only on for 1 day and is a tiny number of people compated to this festival. There's never been anything even approaching this size here before, it's about 10 times the size of any events that the fields have ever held before. It's a fairly small site so to fit in what the organisers say they're fitting in (5 stages including a dance stage run by a very famous nightclub) every scrap of the fields will have to be used right up to the residents garden fences and the noise will be horrific.

But apparently it's a done deal and is all been given the green light by the town council? It's not a busy place at all, it's a very small town and the site has a main road running through the middle of it (so half the fields are on each side of this road) and housing estate running all down one side of it. Usually it's mostly used for just sheep and one or two of the fields (there's about 6 in total) for the small local event like car boot sales or the county show or a classic car show (and those events cause traffic chaos as it is despite being only very small events ) What I don't understand is I walk over those field nearly every day for the school run and there's been no notices about the plans or anything, no local residents have had a chance to see the plans or object or anything. I can't over state how unsuitable a venue this is for what I've read is happening without outing my location but its really really not at all appropriate! Do residents not have to be told or asked about plans for something thjs big and disruptive ??

I am fairly sure I know where you are talking about and it is going to be complete traffic chaos unless they are going to get everyone there by bus. I wouldn't want to be next to it. As it happens I work for the council (not in licencing!), I will see if I can find out who you need to contact.

Thanks!

I would definitely book a weekend away. I live a few villages away from a massive yearly dance festival, apparently it’s the dance version of Glastonbury 🤷‍♀️
thankfully I’m far entertained away to not hear it but the nearest village (which is at least a mile away) is really disturbed by it. I’m on the village fb group and every year it’s split into two camps of people who like being able to hear the music and those who hate it. The council do have noise monitoring wardens out and there is a dedicated 24/7 noise reporting hotline. There are rules about times. Still goes on to the small hours. Roads are closed, traffic is terrible.

So our council doesn't have that section? I'll have to ring them on Monday to ask about it.

As someone who lives very near Reading festival (who don’t give free tickets to those neighbours they disrupt btw - most festivals don’t) my advice is go away for the time that it’s on or the bass will destroy your sanity!

There has been some reports about using public spaces for events like this being considered a deprivation of assets. E.g these are your public spaces, you pay your council tax for these spaces yet you can’t use them.

however the council get extra money for the events, it can also boost the image of an area which brings in more businesses and business rent. So they are not completely impartial when allowing these things to go ahead, that said local residents are never going to approve the level of noise and disruption these cause.

anyway I’m mentioning it in case there’s further applications and this isn’t a one off.

My friend lives there and no the tickets don't make up for it. You'd also be surprised how few people that live there that are entitled to them, despite the chaos and mess caused.

Well, update from my.DH who is at football with one of the DC! One of the other dads actually works in the festival industry (he works away all summer on different events) so DH asked him what he had heard about it and he told DH not to worry about it because it's almost certainly not happening, they don't even have the necessary permissions yet, nobody he knows in the festival industry knows anything about it, and the site will never be approved for the numbers that have been in the press. So the mystery thickens haha but this town can be rumour central and it has been widely publicised so maybe that's all just gossip. I'm still ringing the council on Monday to ask if residents can see the plans.

I wondered if that was the case! Anyway, best of luck OP.

Well who knows, I suppose time will tell and of course I might find out more when I ring the council on monday to ask about the plans. But it's very odd really, the way its been announced in the press and on social media is very convincing - it really does look and sound as if it's going ahead and they're about to start selling tickets (next week) so I hope nobody loses their money.

yes that’s what they were doing in Notting-hill, using people’s basement gardens as toilets.. all caught on ring doorbell.
if you have a low wall/ fence I would make it higher so that people can’t climb over.

Glad you can afford to

Yes alright for some isn't it, not all of us could afford to go away over August bank holiday or would be able to get the time off work (hospitality, for some reason August is busy time in this area, maybe it's all the people getting away for a few days!)

You need to involve your local councillor. There will be a license required and they can advise you who the relevant authority is. At least you can then view the terms applied and the minutes of any discussion which took place, as that meeting may be online.

I wouldn't be going on holiday and leaving my house empty during the festival. In fact i would buy cctv now and would also make sure a family member was in the garden at all times with the pressure washer ready to go just incase someone climbed my fence.

I grew up in Reading and LOVED festival weekend, sooooo much fun. Now live in a smaller town which had a brilliant festival for a few years which was kiboshed by moaning NIMBYs. I don't understand how anyone can be so bloody negative before it's even happened!!

It sounds horrible but now appears it may not go ahead. Contact the council anyway, as you plan, to find out and to be kept updated. Also if it does go ahead do all you can to protect your own property - shore up your back fence, make sure no one is dropping litter in your front garden. I saw a video of a lane used illegally by people urinating and a very good set up that not only recorded the lane was put in place but also water fell down on top of them when they tried to go as well as a loud notice going out at the same time on a speaker about not stopping there.

The bottom line is, you can't just decide to put an event on like this it takes planning and there are certain things that must be done in law before an event of this size can take place. If you have any concerns, speak to the Licensing Dept in your council. For public events on private land, you can ask about, sale of alcohol, food and refreshments, what time will the event start/finish each day and what times must they stop selling food/drink? What insurance will the event have? What security will be in place.and where will people park, will there be road closures? What's the fire risk plan and will first aid be on site? Will people be camping overnight and if so, what facilities will the organisers be putting in place, e.g., porta loos etc? Will organisers have to clean the location after the event to stop contamination/smells/vermin? How will noise be reasonably controlled late at night if people are camping? There's also a load of stuff around risk or terrorism which organisers need to mitigate since the Counter Terrorism and Securities Act came into force a few years ago. You may want to ask why you haven't been consulted when you speak to the council as you should have been regardless of how long/short an event is as even though it's only three days, its likely the disruption caused by the event will last longer than that due to prep before the event and restoration of the field after it.

During Covid planning restrictions were changed so planning notices didn't need to be displayed. Many authorities still maintain thus but it does mean local residents are in the dark about planning applications

Phew I am glad to hear this! PS re outing yourself don't worry,I recognised it because I too am not keen on this plan and so had recently been reading about it.

Part of me thinks it would be good for the town if smaller scale and really good acts but I have literally no idea where all the festival goers would park or how it would work.
Presumably it won't happen if they aren't already licenced as it is only a few months away now?

I honestly don't know, obviously it's just one man's opinion that DH heard so it may or may not be the truth but I just cannot for the life of me see the plan for that many people on that site working, it just seems totally ridiculous... I would be so pleased to see something on a more suitable scale come to the town and would really welcome it though, even on the same site if it seemed like an actually workable idea with a sensible number of people!

I will.come back and update the thread when I have spoken to the license people at the council on monday.

If they have applied for an or several alcohol licences, notice may have been given. Contact your local councillor and raise it with them.

Seeing as several local people have recognised it anyway (and agree with me !!) and I'm now very perpelxed as to what is going on in the light of what DH heard earlier, I'll come out and name it as Monmouth Rising.

The plan according to the organises on social media is to have 45000 people on a site that google tells me is 96 acres which is cut in half by a national speed limit A road and bordered on one side by a large river and the other side by a housing estate. The A road leads to a well known bottle neck junction about half a mile away where the road crosses the river (the only crossing for about 8 miles in eirhrt direction) and then immediately joins a dual carriageway,. You have to cross this junction to get to and from the site to the town centre or anywhere else! It is very much a terrible location for something that big and honestly 45000 people plus their cars/tents could NEVER fit on the site but the organisers say it's got the backing of the council and that all permissions have been granted. Maybe they have been but if so it's been kept very secret!

That's 3 times as many people/acre as Glastonbury.

Don’t leave house during gig so you can keep an eye on things and grow something spiky up the back fence.