Two neighbours have objected to a licence application for the Land Beyond Festival which is due to take place in East Brighton Park next year.
The Festivals Group Limited has applied for a time-limited premises licence at the park in Wilson Avenue over the late May bank holiday weekend next year.
A panel of three members of Brighton and Hove City Council are due to decide whether to grant the licence at a hearing on Tuesday 15 September.
They are expected to hear from the objectors and the Brighton-based festival company owned by Paris O’Connell, 34 and Alexander Isles, 35.
The company has applied for a licence to sell alcohol and show films, play live and recorded music and host dance performances from Friday 28 May to Monday 31 May from 11am to 10.30pm between 11am and 10.30pm.
The event is expected to host live music on one main stage on the Friday and bank holiday Monday, suitable for those aged 14 and over.
On the Saturday and Sunday, the festival is due to have a number of stages and to be strictly for the over 18s.
One of the anonymous objectors raised concerns about stewarding, crowd dispersal and lack of clean-up.
The objector, whose details were redacted by the council, said: “Well-managed events can bring life and enjoyment to the park and benefit the wider community.
“However, this particular event has repeatedly demonstrated poor management, resulting in an unacceptable impact on local residents, the surrounding environment and the park itself.
“In my view, the organisers have failed to adequately mitigate the consequences of an event of this scale.”
The other anonymous objector, whose details were also redacted, said: “Our home life is already regularly impacted by anti-social behaviour associated with alcohol consumption.
“There is no information about the number of people expected to attend this proposed event and therefore site suitability cannot be determined.
“East Brighton Park is an invaluable resource for local families and this event would limit their ability to enjoy this public space during a rare public holiday.”
Neither Brighton and Hove City Council nor Sussex Police have opposed the application.
In the event of the licence being granted, the applicant has agreed draft conditions with Sussex Police.
Those conditions would require 14 to 18-year-olds to be accompanied by a responsible adult and for an event management plan to be submitted at least five months before the event.
And draft conditions agreed with the council’s licensing team would require security staff to be deployed by the corner of Henley Road and Whitehawk Road when crowds disperse.
The organisers said that there would be enough toilets – and a clean-up team is also planned for the event.
All residents in the area should receive a letter at least two weeks before the event with details on how to contact the noise management team.
The council licensing panel hearing is due to take place at 10am on Tuesday 15 September and is scheduled to be webcast.
Yet again, the Council is riding roughshod over local residents. Take Preston park – when I moved here 23 years ago, there were 2 big events – Pride and a Circus. This year we have 13, all at the expense of significant disruption to local residents with noise, lighting, loss of the use of the park, illegal parking etc. The council couldnt care less and want to INCREASE the number of license days.
Fight this
If you hate culture, solution is to move up to burgess hill buddy. No one does anything remotely interesting up there.
This is a silly reply.
Tony was clearly pointing out how three events is reasonable, and purchasing a house in the area when there are only three annual events is a personal choice which he was willing to make.
The council scaling that up to 13 annual events is very inconsiderate to locals, you don’t expect things to scale that dramatically, and it’s completely acceptable to voice your concerns about it.
You have a very simple mind, Dave. I suspect you are too young to have purchased a property, so your opinion has very little weight here.
Does the value of the opinion increase with the value of the property?
Concerts are only one cultural stream. BHCC Events department appears to lack the arts experience to programme a greater diversity of events. I look forward to the appointment of a full time Arts and Events Chief. “Acting” describes the current departments take on Cultural Management.
You should run an Airbnb
“Resident angry that tourist city is doing tourist things in tourist area.”
Brighton can’t arrange anything without someone objecting. Move a streetlight 2 mm to the left and people will be up in arms. I’m surprised there are only 2 for this. Maybe more now people realise the opportunity to complain
You joke, I have seen someone object to a streetlight because it would, quote, “devastate his ambience”. They lived on a council estate on a main road.
You are a Councillor then? Tell us which one so we can swerve this electorate mocker in the next election.
Comments are public realm, Tracy… 🙄
The Council Officer in charge of city events needs auditing because at the moment no one knows where all that money is going. Certainly not back into the parks, gardens and public spaces they are stealing time and space from, excluding the very public they belong to and causing noise nuisance for neighbours. Some of these events are also putting the final nails in the coffins of local tax-paying health and safety and food certificate-checked venues which used to get this business for hosting and screening events. All these events have knock on effects which are not being taken into account either and they are not always good ones on the local economy. Cyclists and runners also spend almost no money in the city and many of their supporters can no longer come either because it’s become too difficult to drive and too expensive to park or stay.
If only there was some sort of report on the budget…a budget report…
All the money goes on council staff pensions. They work from home because of Covid, seven years after the event, and then some play at working one day a week. Then they retire at 50 with full salary index-linked pensions.
24% of all council tax goes on council staff pensions.
And Andy Burnham wants them to run more of the country, so I suspect that the country will be closed for the weekend at 2.00pm on a Friday.
Where does the rest of the money go? Nobody knows.
Maybe they’re putting it all in brown paper bags under a bed and in a few years time someone will ‘find’ the receipt for the i360….
The occasional paragraph break would vastly improve your otherwise unhinged twaddle.
Ah the antifun police are back!
If you hate these events so much do like the other comments say and more to Burgess Hill
There are plenty of alternatives to hijacking local parks such as stadiums and music venues. Of course they’ll cost more and dig into profits but local parks are for everyone and not to be used exclusively. It’s pretty offensive turning up to face an erected wall blocking off your freedom. How about public spaces remain open and festivals and gigs if allowed to use the space simply make money from the sidestalls selling food and merchandise.
Stanmer used to have a festival run just like that. Saw Jamiroquai there.. for free.