Access All Areas Winter Issue | Page 7

WINTER | AGENDA What’s your biggest festival bugbear? Drink queues | 16.67% Bad sound quality | 18.56% *264 responded to Accessaa.co.uk’s survey Bad or no Wi-Fi | 16.29% Toilets | 48.48% License to fill A number of festivals across the UK have been hit by licensing issues, as Wireless Festival continues its dispute with Haringey Council over noise levels and public nuisance. Live Nation, the festival’s promoter, is protesting new regulations from the council which require reduced bass levels and a finish half an hour earlier. The council’s request to reduce the festival’s capacity from 49,000 to 10,000 was rejected. In Edinburgh, meanwhile, the City Council is considering a noise ban… on silent discos. Councillor Jo Mowatt commented: “Silent discos are not silent. There is a lot of whooping and screaming, especially when you have 40 women on a hen party. I have been contacted by many of my constituents regarding silent discos. The Old Town Community Council has been raising this issue for around nine months.” Elsewhere in Scotland, a change of licensing rules means festivals and outdoor events in Glasgow are required to consult with all neighbouring councils, rather than just the council for the area in which the event takes place. Mairi Miller, Glasgow City Council’s head of licensing, commented: “The community councils, which cover a much smaller area, are often not notified.” At the opposite end of the UK, events are also coming under scrutiny. In Portsmouth, the Rum & Reggae Festival in Priory Park was postponed until the new year after objections from nearby park residents prevented the event from going ahead. The many licensing issues which public events are facing begs the question: is the Licensing Act sufficient for our festivals, or does it need revising? At least one major festival has found a solution to the noise problem. Field Day‘s 2019 edition will move from Brockwell Park to a series of four interlinked warehouses next to Tottenham Marshes – the largest will hold 7,500 festival-goers – the largest of its kind in London. Luke Huxham, the festival’s director, said the new location will allow Field Day to continue later into the evening than any other festival. He added: “This new site will allow us to break down the restrictions that London festivals are normally faced with, and deliver an unrivalled experience.” In praise of the independent promoter Deborah Armstrong, founder of event design company Strong & Co, honours a departed friend I lost a friend unexpectedly recently, Irish promoter and Patron of the Arts, John Reynolds. His funeral ceremony gave me insight into the huge impact he had. People’s lives, careers, relationships all changed because of him. We, in the event industry are literally in the business of making memories. It takes all our different skills working together to do that. The hardships and joys of the industry are the forge where life- changing connections are made and rare is the individual that braves the fire to pull us all together. Seamus Heaney in his poem The Forge , describes that individual as he who opens “the door into the dark”, who “expends himself in shape and music”. John was a man with a unique blend of artistic vision, bravery, strength, commercial savvy and a deep commitment to family and to freed om. These elements together create a ripple effect that leads to profound change. One of the eulogies to John illustrates this: “John, do you remember…the queues of people in feathers and the time when we caused an Irish shortage of glitter? John do you remember the time we had to make a human chain to handball the inflatable baby to the stage?…” The memories are light-hearted, but to know what is behind them is to understand the value for us all. John gave subcultures space to exist, nurtured them to create and to grow, fed their confidence and fought for their freedoms. In Ireland, this played a huge part in the cultural shift that led to the change the marriage equality laws. So hats off to “[he who] grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick, to beat real iron out, to work the bellows.” In memory of John Reynolds. 1965-2018. 07