A dance music festival due to take place in a Brean has been cancelled amid licensing issues.
Another World festival was due to take place in Brean’s Pontins during March, but organisers have decided to switch the event to Cotswold Airport in Gloucestershire instead during August.
The festival was arranged in partnership with record label Fantazia. Organiser Lee Bayako says moving it is “one of the hardest decisions” he’s taken.
He added that he has been organising events across the UK since the 1990s and had never had to cancel before.
At a meeting with Pontins, Avon and Somerset Police and licensing officials from Sedgemoor District Council, a number of issues such as full 24-hour licensing, traffic restrictions and noise concerns were not raised.
Lee says: “We discussed what was required to make sure the festival was a safe event. There was no mention from the district council about us operating under a 24-hour license which Pontins held.”
A Sedgemoor District Council spokesman says: “Our environmental health officers get several calls a year about the cleanliness of the facilities at Pontins and consequently visited the park to investigate and concluded the rave was a licensable event.”
“Originally, the organisers did not apply for the appropriate licences which ensure that any event is properly managed. Once the organisers had met with the police and others to discuss what is needed to ensure a safe event, they decided not to go ahead with the event.”
Lee says: “We were not told to apply for any additional licenses and therefore did not know we were required to do so. We are professionals with years of experience organising these events, we had detailed plans ready to go so we could be sure the event was safely managed, but moving was our only option.”
The festival will be held in Cotswold Airport across three days instead.
