Ruling on Wiltshire rave festival to be made this week
The event would celebrate
A thousand ravers could be dancing the night away to ‘pounding dance music’ for a long weekend in the Wiltshire countryside – if councillors agree.
Members of Wiltshire Council’s Eastern Area licensing sub-committee will meet next week to discuss the application to put on the Kaleidoscope Arts Festival - a celebration of dance music and rave culture in a field off Lower Road, just north of Erlestoke, near Devizes in September.
The organisers want to hold the festival from Thursday Sept 1 to Monday Sept 5 – with live and recorded music until midnight on the Thursday and Sunday and 3am on the Friday and Saturday. The Thursday is designated a special “locals’ night”.
'Soundtrack of pounding dance music'
The event’s website calls it: “an immersive three-day festival in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside, set to a soundtrack of pounding dance music and live performances” and promises up to 1,000 ravers at the festival.
The organisers, Kaleidoscopic Events, based in Yorkshire, told the committee: “We have chosen this location because it is not near a town, is a distance from Coulston and Erlestoke such that music will not inconvenience villagers or stop anyone from sleeping, and only has a few residents within 500 metres.
All nearby residents are known to us personally or have been contacted and informed of the ‘locals night’ on Thursday 1 September, which begins the event on the first day of the premises licence, before standard festival entry on Friday 2nd September.”
But while Erlestoke Parish Council hasn’t said it doesn’t want to go ahead, it has raised some concerns.
'Very limited consultation with Erlestoke residents'
It told the committee: “As far as the Parish Council is aware there has been no or certainly very limited consultation with the local residents of Erlestoke.
“While the application indicates that the number of attendees will be under 5,000 it is not clear how many attendees are expected or the planned limit of ticket sales”
The council said it didn’t feel the roads the organisers want to use off Lower Road as access were adequate.
It is also worried about: “the level of noise and that the licence is until 3am both Friday and Saturday for recorded music, and the alcohol licence application being until 2.30am.
“This is of particular concern as one resident had their front wall demolished by a car at 4am on the night of the private party held last year that this festival is based on. This cost £3,000 to the local resident.”
The sub-committee meets at 10.30am on Thursday August 18 at County Hall in Trowbridge.