New Coventry festival to trial "slightly stricter" entry policy
It follows complaints about incidents at Godiva festival.
Last updated 17th Jul 2024
A new Coventry festival will trial a “slightly stricter” policy after reports of problems with youths at Godiva festival. But organisers of the Caribbean Reggae Fever event also stressed that it is a day for families.
The event taking place this weekend was granted a licence at a council meeting yesterday, 16 July. Councillors had the chance to ask festival directors questions about their plans – and councillor Julia Lepoidevin (Con, Woodlands) said hers were “based on what happened at the Godiva festival.”
She asked if young people will have to have adults with them when they go in, adding: “How are you going to monitor that because obviously it didn’t work at Godiva festival. Do you feel you have got enough security?”
This year’s Godiva festival held only two weeks ago saw some attendees complain on social media of groups of unaccompanied teens. There were also reports of a “stampede” involving “hundreds of youths.”
Responding at the meeting, organiser Harry Cook said customers buying tickets for the event will be restricted to three under-18 child tickets to one adult ticket. This is a smaller ratio than the four children to one adult allowed by Godiva festival.
All group tickets must have a named individual who must be there when they go into the event and have photo ID, he added. Staff have also been briefed to not allow entry to young people without a responsible adult, he said.
“This has come off the back of the experience of Godiva festival. This is something we are working with the events team to trial, a slightly stricter regime while we have got a smaller audience” he told councillors.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Cooke said that as a new event they have the opportunity to “set a standard,” and will achieve this with a smaller ratio which is “reasonable.”
The move doesn’t stop families from coming, he said. “We work very closely with the city council’s events team and have taken learnings from Godiva.”
Mr Cook also said the organisers “welcome feedback” and said their public email address is support@covcarnival.org. Earlier this month Coventry council said they will be reviewing their policies for Godiva festival and apologised to anyone whose experience had been “impacted.”
Caribbean Reggae Festival director Colin Bell, who chairs the Coventry Caribbean Association, stressed that they have been “careful” in their messaging to promote as a family event. He also said it is quite different to events like Godiva.
He added: “People are less likely to misbehave if their grandmas and their parents and the rest of their families are there. At the community centre we rarely have any problems. The community will be out, just like when I was growing up.”
Mr Bell said they are doing as much as they can to mitigate potential issues. On why the licence is being granted so close to the event, Mr Cook claimed they are “late in the day” with the hearing decision because of the effort and time they had put in to the application to meet the requirements.
Mr Bell said: “I am not saying we haven’t had a few ups and downs and sleepless nights over it. I personally think they made the right decision.”
He later added: “We are not doing it for our own fun really, it’s something the community has been asking for for many years.” The festival will take place this weekend and involves live music until 8pm on Saturday 20 July.
The event was granted a licence for the music, performances and selling alcohol at yesterday’s meeting. The hearing came after a neighbour lodged an objection over noise concerns and spoke of problems they experience during Godiva festival.
But councillors granted the licence after no authorities objected and after hearing how organisers would manage noise, safety and health at the event.