Plan for return of music festival in Wolverhampton park met with wave of protest

Walsall-based New Vision Events Ltd applied to the city's council for a short-term premises licence on Friday, June 16, and Saturday, June 17 for its Ibiza Proms in the Park event – which will include the sale of alcohol.

A similar event went ahead without incident in September last year, despite the local authority receiving a mass of opposition. Noise and potential public nuisance concerns for this year’s music festival were also raised by licensing bosses and environment health.

However, following mediation between New Vision and both parties, the organisers have agreed to scale down to a one-day event on June 17, with live/recorded music/DJs only allowed between 12 noon and 10pm.

The council’s licensing department has received a number of written objections to the proposed event from people concerned about noise levels, litter, traffic and parking problems and anti-social behaviour.

One said: “As soon as this was brought to my attention my stress levels were up. This will affect my mental health in the build-up and during the event if it is allowed to happen.”

Another added: “I found the Ibiza in the Park festival last  September to be both noisy and disruptive. These events must be absolutely horrendous for people living closer to the park than I to endure. A more suitable venue would perhaps be Wolverhampton Racecourse.”

A further letter of objection said: “The park wasn’t cleaned up properly after the last event. There were numerous drunk people urinating in the hedges. There were cigarette butts to the left side of the field, which I presume was the smoking area. And over a week later broken glass had still not been cleared up. My partner is elderly and we should not have to suffer in our own home  listening to raucous, booming music.

“Also, the show is a mile from the city centre with no official car park.So cars park on the streets in what is a residential area, obstructing access to homes and causing complete chaos.”

A spokesman for organisers New Vision said: “This will be the second year for this popular event to take place at the same location. Many lessons have been learned from that event including a change of layout, wider distribution of a letter drop to residents and more detailed information being disseminated to the local community.

“On the plus side, there was lots of positive feedback from local residents, a city councillor and many positive comments on social media. We believe we have offered a comprehensive suite of conditions within the operating schedule which will fully uphold the licensing objectives.

“There will be specific policies and procedures in place to ensure the premises site is well run – and as per last year we will work closely with the council’s events management team,” he added.

The council’s statutory licensing sub-committee is due to make a decision on the application on Friday.