‘Pop festival risks permanent damage to beauty spot’
Row over expansion of controversial South Downs music event as bosses look to attract more visitors
NATIONAL park bosses risk turning their land into “theme parks”, environmentalists are warning, amid plans to expand a controversial music festival.
Boomtown Fair, which has seen a spate of drug-related deaths, could this year welcome up to 76,999 people to its Hampshire venue, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) within the South Downs.
The South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) says the event attracts young people who would otherwise not experience the landscape.
But opponents say people come purely to party – the 2019 acts included The Streets and Prophets of Rage – while cut off from the park’s natural treasures by a 10ft perimeter fence.
They believe the five-day event wreaks permanent damage on the ancient Downs and have accused SDNPA of failing to undertake a proper environmental impact assessment.
It echoes an ongoing row in the Lake District over plans to attract more “diverse” visitors, including by laying down 4x4 trails and erecting zip-wires.
Last night, the Campaign for National Parks said bosses’ first duty was to preserve natural beauty. “The national parks are not theme parks – they are internationally recognised landscapes,” said Corinne Pluchino, the chief executive of the CNP.
Boomtown Fair takes place at Cheesefoot Head, a natural amphitheatre at the western extremity of the Downs, near Winchester. It is renowned as one of the finest lowland vistas in the UK, and comprises three “bowl barrow” ancient burial sites.
The festival at the Matterley Estate has grown significantly since its first edition in 2010, when it was granted capacity for 29,999.
Victor Lent, policy officer for the Friends of the South Downs, said the festival altered the landscape, with shipping containers left all year round, as well as permanent roadworks and stages in the woods. “These parks were created to protect the landscape from further development; they w were given the highest planning protection possible,” he said. “I cannot see how the construction of an entertainment city is consistent with that. It might bring people into the national park – but what do these people then do?”
Other local campaigners said the SDNPA was “ideologically” committed to attracting more visitors.
The authority is chaired by Margaret
Paren, a former Whitehall civil servant who has with spells in the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office, and until October was the chairman of National Parks England.
A spokesman for Boomtown Fair conceded that some wooden stages were permanent, but said they were used outside the festival for educational purposes. He denied there were any Tarmac roadworks as a result of the event.
“Boomtown Fair is committed to running a sustainable festival, and our environmental responsibilities are at the core of everything we do,” he said.
The SDNPA spokesman said: “We recognise there are temporary impacts but do not believe, given the evidence, that these are long-term.”