Harbour Festival Event clears final hurdle as square licence approved
THIS summer’s Bristol Harbour Festival has cleared its final hurdle after councillors approved a licence for Queen Square despite concerns about noise.
One resident objected to the application by the festival’s new organisers Proud Events, which won a four-year contract from Bristol City Council last October to run it.
The company had already been granted premises licences for alcohol sales, live music and dance at Lloyds Amphitheatre, College Green and Thekla car park from 11am to 10pm on Wednesday, July 17, to Sunday, July 21, because there were no objections.
But a neighbour made representations about the events taking place in Queen Square so a licensing sub-committee hearing was held at City Hall yesterday.
Proud Events managing director Harry Feigen said they requested the extra days in case the festival expanded in future but that this year there would be entertainment at the amphitheatre and Millennium Square on the Friday and across all the sites over the weekend, ending at 6pm on Sunday.
However, Queen Square homeowner Janet Wilson told the panel: “This is something that could creep in a massive gig for 10,000 people by the back door.
“Having five consecutive days, 11 hours a day, in Queen Square in perpetuity is very different from the Harbour Festival we are used to, which is family-friendly, two days and from 11am to 6pm which is when children go to bed.
“I am massively concerned. We have been tricked before with events in Queen Square based on misleading information.
“Having amplified music until 10pm is too much. It is totally unacceptable.
“Our house has shaken from loud music from a DJ who would not turn it down despite being asked.
“Our lives are on the line, our children’s lives will be severely damaged.”
Mr Feigen told the hearing: “We completely acknowledge the representation.
“We want to consult. Our approach is to create a familyfriendly space in Queen Square.
“We work with the responsible authorities, such as the police, noise pollution and numerous safety advisory groups, and conditions have been agreed by them to go on the licence.
“That’s why we’ve had no representations from them. We want to be a good neighbour.”
He said Proud Events had lots of experience organising city centre events and that the reason they won the tender was probably because they were trying to bring the Harbour Festival, which has been running more than 50 years, back to the water as much as possible.
He said: “We are moving our main stage to the amphitheatre and we are not having activity on the Friday on Queen Square – that will be just Saturday and Sunday.
“We are having performative dance, walkabout acts and emerging music, as well as markets and food stalls in areas where we haven’t applied for licences.
“The reason we applied for five days was purely to give us flexibility.
“The Harbour Festival is a big event but it’s a community event.
“It is very important to the city and we are exploring how to bring new energy to the event, and part of that was to apply for additional days in case it becomes a four- or five-day festival.
“There are no plans for that this year and if we want to extend to Wednesday and Thursday, we will apply for a new licence.”
In January, councillors approved an application for outdoor concerts at Queen Square for up to 15,000 fans despite opposition from dozens of locals.
The gigs are set to take place from Friday to Sunday, August 9 to 11.