Residents claim a previous event in the park was ‘poorly controlled’, resulting in ‘significant public safety issues’
A community events team is looking to host a two-day festival in a North London park to celebrate Holi – the Hindu Festival of Colours, Love and Spring – and International Women’s Day. Activities will include a stage with dancers, religious music, and food.
Asian Events Media has applied to Brent Council for an alcohol and entertainment licence to host the festival in Roe Green Park in Kingsbury on March 7 and 8 this year, which would allow it to put on live music and sell beer on-site. The organisers expect there to be up to 2,500 attendees over the course of the weekend, with tickets priced at £5 each.
For the Hindu community, Holi marks the arrival of spring, the end of winter and the triumph of good over evil. Known as the “festival of colours”, it typically involves dancing, singing, and the throwing of powder paint and coloured water. However, some locals have raised concerns about the plans after claiming a similar event in the park resulted in “serious disruption” for residents.
An application has been made to allow regulated entertainment and the sale of alcohol from 12 noon until 7pm on both days of the festival – involving the sale of only beer from one of the festival stalls. Holi Festival will be celebrated on the 7th, with International Woman’s Day to be marked on the 8th.
Speaking of the event, the organisers said: “There will be a stage with live performers, dancers throughout the day with food and non food stalls and activities for kids as this will be an event for the local community to come and enjoy the festival.”
However, some objections have been lodged against the application from local residents, who have raised concerns about noise, traffic, public safety and alcohol. The organisers have said that there will be no parking on-site and attendees will have to find their own – an issue the residents claimed caused “chaos” at a similar event last year.
One criticised a previous event for being “poorly controlled”, which they claimed resulted in “significant public safety issues, damage to parkland and serious disruption to residents”. Further concerns were raised about the sale of alcohol increasing the risk of crime and antisocial behaviour as attendees disperse into the surrounding streets following the event.
They added: “The local community directly experienced the consequences of inadequate controls, or non-compliance and lack of enforcement of those controls on traffic, parking and safe pedestrian conditions. […] A prior event at Roe Green Park resulted in numerous vehicles being driven over grassed areas in an uncontrolled and chaotic manner, creating dangerous conditions for pedestrians, attendees and the local community.
“The proposed use of amplified sound throughout both days of the event presents a significant risk of public nuisance. Roe Green Park is surrounded by residential properties, and sustained high-volume amplified music and announcements over extended daytime hours will inevitably disturb residents.”
Another resident claimed they approached security staff at the last event and described them as “rude” and told them that “anything that happened outside the event fencing was not the responsibility of the organisers”.
Asian Events Media has said that it will make sure that public safety is adhered to throughout the event, which will see many families in attendance. It added: “We will have a total of 15 SIA badged security looking out for people’s safety at all times and will remove such individuals if necessary, from the event.”
The licence will be reviewed by Brent Council’s Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing Sub-Committee at a meeting next week (February 25). The refusal of the premises licence application does not mean the whole event will be blocked – this will be determined by the Brent Safety Advisory Group.
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