Licence granted for Beaminster music festival, despite local concerns
But the event at Seaborough Manor Farm won't be going ahead this year
Last updated 10th Apr 2024
A licence has been granted for a proposed new music festival in West Dorset.
While the event, Dorsom at Seaborough Manor Farm, Beaminster, will not be taking place this year – if other hurdles can be overcome, it could accommodate up to 10,000 each year every July.
Parish councillors and Dorset Police say the location, only accessible by country lanes, makes the site unsuitable.
Dorset councillors on a licensing panel were told they had to disregard the traffic concerns when considering a Premises Licence for the event, which they have now granted.
The Dorchester hearing was told that traffic and other aspects of the festival, would all have to be agreed by a Safety Advisory Group over the course of the coming year before the first festival, in 2025, takes place.
Sherborne-based HopTails Ltd are behind the application, claiming wide experience with many other pop-up events and mini festivals.
The license which has been granted allows for live music outdoors up until midnight, recorded music until midnight on Thursdays and 3am on Friday and Saturdays; with the sale of alcohol up until 3am Thursday – Saturday.
The licence condition includes a series of conditions about safety and supervision including one which bans the use of paper lanterns.
It also asks for an Event Management Plan with a draft of that plan to be produced at least six months prior to the first day of the first event, and three months prior to subsequent events at the site.
Other conditions include no lasers, live fire or pyrotechnics without specific prior approval and for CCTV to cover entrances and exits to the site and areas where alcohol is sold.
Licensing consultant Mr Nick Semper, for the applicants, said issues about road safety and other wider concerns over the festival, would be dealt with by experts in the coming months and in plenty of time before the first event, now likely to be in 2025.
He told the hearing that, apart from the police, none of the statutory organisations consulted had raised an objection, including highways, environmental health, fire and rescue and Dorset Council’s planning and licensing teams.
The event has been described as “a music festival providing a broad and eclectic range of popular music, specifically intended to appeal to a wide audience of varied musical tastes.”
A section of the originally proposed festival area has already been withdrawn from the site plan – including the banks of the River Axe and a section of wildlife interest known as Little Jamaica.
Several residents said they feared disturbance the risk of litter and ‘wild weeing’ causing pollution if the riverside area had been included.
Said the parish council in its submission to the hearing:
“A large number of people in one confined area with access to alcohol and drugs, there will be an element who will indulge to excess with the usual consequences of arguments, fights, and unacceptable behaviour. Rural crime is already a growing problem – this event will be seen as an opportunity and /or cover for criminal activity on site and in the local area.”
Others at the hearing, raised the difficulties of having the festival, accessed only by country roads, at harvest time and during what was likely to be the first week of the school summer holidays.