New three-day music event won't impact local area, say organisers
Quick Panda Productions Ltd wants to extend Live at Scorrier House, which has traditionally been a one-day event
A Cornwall Council licensing committee has heard that the production costs of staging a one-day concert event are so prohibitive it makes more financial sense for the organisers to put on a three-day music event instead.
Members were assured that if approved the expanded event would not impact on the local area.
Quick Panda Productions Ltd – which stages the Great Estate Festival at Scorrier House, near Redruth – has applied for the variation of a premises licence to extend its one-day Live at Scorrier House concert to a three-day music event between May and September, though the plan is to hold it over the August bank holiday.
The company already has permission for the 12,000-capacity Great Estate and Live at Scorrier House, a 9,999-capacity event, which would also be the capacity for the new extended version.
The Great Estate, which runs from May 30 to June 1 next year, has already announced Supergrass and the Happy Mondays among its line-up.
The application was called to committee as the council’s environmental protection department had raised concerns about noise affecting nearby residents.
The proposal had not received any objections from neighbours of the estate, Trading Standards, Devon and Cornwall Police, the fire and rescue authority or health and safety.
However, Cornwall Council’s environmental protection officer (EPO) Miranda Flannigan objected, stating: "An increase in festival events at this location is in our professional view and experience likely to cause a significant noise disturbance to residents in the area.
"Based on our experience of the Great Estate Festival and the one-day Live at Scorrier House event on the same licence, any music played will be clearly audible at nearby noise sensitive receptor and an increase in event days would not be in our opinion acceptable."
Following discussions between Quick Panda and the EPO before the meeting, it was suggested that live music could run until 11pm with a silent disco until 2am on the Friday and Saturday, but live music should finish at 9pm on the Sunday with the silent disco ending at 11pm.
Ben Hall, of Quick Panda, said they were happy for one of the nights’ live music to end at 9pm but they didn’t particularly want it to be the Sunday of a bank holiday. "We don’t want to tie our hands if we get a really brilliant band on the Sunday and have to finish at 9pm when no one’s going to work the next day."
He pointed out that Quick Panda Productions Ltd runs five family-friendly festivals in Cornwall, one of them being the Great Estate, which has just won gold in the South West Tourism Awards.
The Live at Scorrier House event has traditionally been a one-day event. "It’s an Eden Project set-up style where there’s one stage and it’s more of a concert where people come for a day of music and camp. It’s as much a financial reason for varying this application because the production costs are so high to put on a one-day event," said Mr Hall.
"Once you’ve built the stage and put the sound system in, you’ve paid for the fencing and the lights and the infrastructure, it’s very costly.
"With it being a bank holiday weekend we want to operate on, the financial restraints are so much that we would like to make two or three nights of it albeit one of the nights being a very soft welcome night where people arrive, camp and there might be a silent disco.
"The second night would be more of a concert-style day where there would be a few bands with an 11pm finish and then the ability for us to have a concert-style event on the Sunday as it’s a bank holiday weekend.
"We’ve always been very respectful of the neighbours and we talk to everyone locally, and work very closely with Miranda and her team to ensure we stick to all the sound regulations. We feel that we can do it in a responsible manner which would stay within the licensing objectives."
Lou Martin, who books the entertainment, added: "Quick Panda have brought some great bands to Cornwall over the last few years and sometimes, depending where else they’re playing in the UK, we might only be able to get a really brilliant band on a Sunday, for instance. Hence wanting the flexibility to be able to choose which day we put those acts on."
Mr Hall said: "There was some concern that we might be trying to replicate the Great Estate festival, which is 12,000 capacity now and is a very popular event.
"We’re aware of the impact on the local area, but Live at Scorrier House is not something that ourselves or the owners of the estate want to grow to that level of complexity.
"It’s very much a concert with one stage and bars and traders, as opposed to the Great Estate which spreads across the entire estate with multiple venues and stages."
Ms Flannigan said she was quite happy for the Sunday to run until 11pm if the event was over the August bank holiday.
The committee agreed to the licence with live music on the Friday and Saturday to 11pm and until 9pm on the Sunday, but if held on a bank holiday for it to be extended until 11pm on the Sunday, provided that the finish time on either the Friday or Saturday is reduced to 9pm.
Members felt that on balance there was sufficient evidence to show that if the licence was granted the prevention of public nuisance objective would not be undermined.