ShyneFest licence granted for June event near Guildford
A music festival near Guildford has been given the go ahead to take place in June to hold up to 4,999 people.
Guildford Borough Council’s licensing sub committee has granted a licence for ShyneFest to take place at Merrist Wood College, with an event that will include camping and a silent disco.
The festival, advertised as for the family, started as a birthday celebration for organiser Shyne Adcock and has been held since 2015 at various venues across Surrey including Miles Green Farm in Bisley and Apps Court Farm in Walton-on-Thames.
Now organisers will just have to give six months’ written notice to hold the event in future years, despite objections from residents regarding an “increased level of nuisance” and a possible increase in crime.
Minutes from the meeting, which was held on Monday April 25, but with the decision published on Friday May 6, show that concerns were raised by nearby residents after an event on August 1, 2021 at the college described as “unbelievable and out of control”.
The council confirmed in the meeting that there would be two live sound loggers at the event, who would ask sound engineers to lower volume levels when the sound levels reached “amber level” or higher.
Spot checks on sound levels would also be performed regularly around the site.
In total there were 16 objections to the licence application.
Including staff, the maximum capacity for the event will be up to 4,999, but at the time of the meeting around 400 tickets had been sold across the weekend, including both camping and day tickets.
A ShyneFest ‘meet the organisers’ post on Facebook said: “What started out as a fun and unique way to celebrate her 40th with friends and family, Shyne had no idea that her birthday celebration would land up being a weekend-long music festival on a friends farm, playfully called ShyneFest.
“And it was such a hit that everyone has been begging her to do it again, but this time even bigger, so they could extend the invitation to all their friends and beyond.”
The festival was first held in West End, Surrey in 2015 with 18 bands and performers and around 250 in attendance, according to the festival’s website.
It was then in 2017 and 2018 held in Miles Green Farm in Bisley, Surrey before moving to Apps Court Farm in Walton-on-Thames in 2019 and 2021 – with no festival in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.