Music festival in doubt after calls to refuse licence

HOPES of staging a music festival near Cardiff are in doubt after calls for its licence to be refused.

Welshfest is expected to attract up to 5,000 festival-goers between July 27 and 29 for a three-day music festival including artists such as Goldie Lookin’ Chain.

But there have been calls for the licence for the event, due to be held at the Coedarhydyglyn Estate just outside the capital, to be refused due to concerns over noise.

An objection to Welsfest’s application, which asks permission to sell alcohol and playing recorded music until 2am, and live music up to midnight, has been raised by Shared Regulatory Services, which provides environmental health and licensing services for Bridgend, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan councils.

Sue Brown, environmental health officer for Shared Regulatory Services, wrote to the Vale of Glamorgan council asking for live and recorded music at the event to be restricted to 11pm each day and for the sale of alcohol to stop at 10.40pm if the licence is granted.

She said: “Environmental health has serious concerns regarding the lack of information supplied in relation to this application and the management of this event in general.

“Therefore at this time environmental health advises that this application be refused.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council’s licensing sub-committee was due to meet today to determine whether to give Welshfest permission to hold the event.

If it goes ahead the event will host artists from across Wales for three days of live music – from a range of genres across four stages – as well as more than 40 DJs.

Wales Air Ambulance, Tenovus Cancer Charity and Wales Kidney Foundation are among the charities booked to attend Welshfest.

A Welshfest spokesman said: “We wanted to create a really Welsh-themed festival of live music that would appeal to people of all ages.

“Also important to us is having upcoming local talent at WelshFest. There doesn’t seem to be much opportunity for live performing musicians in Wales outside of the pubs and clubs.

“Providing a venue like this means anyone with musical talent has the opportunity to play for a larger audience.”

A spokesman for Vale of Glamorgan council declined to comment.