Fi.Fest organiser slams council for 'scaremongering' over licence bid and vows the show will go on

The organiser of the popular Fi.Fest music festival has lambasted a parish council for its objection to a proposed licence change – and how it has handled the process.

Fi.Fest is a popular festival which takes place off Forest Green Road and attracts a large crowd every July across two days.

It features live music from artists and typically includes children’s entertainment and other attractions.

For the past couple of years, it has featured a ‘Friday pre-party’ in the evening in advance of the big day on Saturday.

Last month, organisers applied to RBWM to vary the times of its licence to play music from noon to 11pm and sell alcohol from noon to 10.30pm.

Bray Parish Council (BPC) is objecting to the licence tweak, due to concerns over the increase in noise from a venue which is ‘already causing neighbours distress’.

They raised concerns that it is taking place during school hours, which might hinder children’s journeys, as well as residents and businesses going about their day.

Traffic concerns also came up – BPC said surrounding streets cannot take a lot more traffic.

Cllr Louvaine Kneen, chair of BPC’s planning committee, wrote that it was ‘a real issue of public safety’.

But Lee Page, Fi.Fest’s organiser, has branded the objection ‘scaremongering’.

Writing on Facebook, he said: “The council’s claims back in 2019 suggested that we would attract drug use, knife crime, endanger children, and disturb the non-existent great crested newt.

“This [new objection] appears to be the same kind of scaremongering that Bray Parish Council has employed in the past, based on absolutely no evidence.

“It’s important to note that Fi.Fest has been operating since 2018 without any issues raised by the council or emergency services.”

Mr Page said previous objections by BPC cost his business £20,000 in court fees to fight back against.

“We will take this matter to court, and the event will proceed,” he wrote.

“However, this unfortunate situation will divert funds from entertaining the thousands of local attendees.”

Mr Page also criticised the timing of BPC’s objection, submitted ‘on the final day of consultation… leaving very little time for a response’.

He felt this was ‘another tactic… aimed at silencing public backlash against [BPC’s] actions’.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Mr Page flagged concerns surrounding procedure at the parish council.

On September 19, RBWM’s licensing team contacted Cllr Kneen saying that members of BPC told RBWM they were ‘not aware’ of the objection submitted on BPC’s behalf.

Cllr Kneen explained that, due to the timescales of the licensing application versus planning committee meetings, BPC sought councillor and resident views after its last meeting, which will be ratified at its next one.

But this does not sit well with Mr Page.

“[The formal objection] has been done retrospectively in my mind. It’s just not the right way to do things,” he said.

“You need to have a publicly held meeting with minutes and a recorded vote. There is none of that.

“[Parish councils] are the grassroots of democracy. We need people that speak for us to be trustworthy, and this doesn’t help.”

BPC and Cllr Kneen did not comment further.