Wishes granted for Fairy Festival
An award-winning familyfriendly festival will have a new home in Somerset after councillors agreed to grant a new licence.
Karen Kay has staged the Three Wishes Fairy Festival at Mount Edgecumbe House near Torpoint in Cornwall for nearly two decades, comprising live music, with free workshops and “familyfriendly fun”.
Mrs Kay - a self-proclaimed “fairy whisperer” - will now be relocating her unique event to Garslade Farm near Glastonbury, which currently plays host to the annual Godney Gathering in mid-july and the Goodentime Festival in early-september.
Somerset Council has given its blessing for the festival despite objections from local residents and businesses, with members of its licensing sub-committee east voting to grant Mrs Kay a new licence.
The festival, which was first held in Cornwall in 2007, advertises itself as a “gathering of the Celtic faerie clans”, with a range of live and recorded music over three days along with circus performers and workshops.
The event made headlines in June 2018 when those attending set a world record for the most people wearing unicorn horns in a single location - with 592 people crowding into part of the festival site for the attempt.
The first festival to be held at the new venue, nearly three miles north of Glastonbury, will be staged from August 16 to 18, 2024, with ticket-holders being able to camp on-site.
While the new licence allows up to 5,000 people to be within the festival ground at any one time, Mrs Kay indicated that around 1,500 people of all ages were expected to attend in the first year.
Alcohol will be sold for consumption on the premises throughout the event, with the live music being permitted until 11pm on the Thursday before the event and Sunday and until midnight on the Friday and Saturday.
Neither Avon and Somerset Constabulary nor the council’s environmental protection team objected to the licence, agreeing a set of conditions to be added to the licence.
But Michael Churches, owner of the Glastonbury Wedding and Events venue with his wife Jenny, raised concerns about how the event would impact on their business and quality of life within the village of Godney.
He said: “It looks like this has been predetermined, because they are already advertising the festival with tickets on sale.
“To pounce this upon those couples who have booked weddings that they have a festival on the same postcode in the same village is quite annoying for those people. Having an open-ended licence could affect our business, with weddings already booked for 2024 and 2025.”
Will Gooden, who represented Mrs Kay at the hearing, responded: “It is our assumption that we will be able to run it in the middle of August each year, because that suits the way the festival is run and the rest of the calendar at Garslade Farm.”
Following half an hour’s debate in confidential session, the subcommittee announced the event could go ahead, with the licence being granted with the additional conditions agreed with the police and environmental health.
Speaking after the decision, Mrs Kay said: “I am thrilled with the result of the licensing hearing, and would like to thank all involved in the deliberations. After 17 years of running my award-winning family friendly festival in the south west, I am overjoyed to be bringing the Three Wishes Fairy Festival to the new location.
■ For information on the festival, visit www.fairyfestival.co.uk.