Fury at noise at Pendle music festival (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Fury at noise at Pendle music festival
11:03am Monday 26th September 2011 in Music: News
LOUD The Small Trees Festival in Trawden
NOISE from a ‘secret’ music festival kept angry residents awake into the early hours this weekend.
The Small Trees Festival, which featured a number of DJs, was held in a field opposite Trawden Recreation Ground, on Friday and Saturday nights.
Adrian Lord was granted a Temporary Event Notice for the event from Pendle Council after he suggested it would be a ticketed private party for less than 490 people.
So people who live nearby were shocked when a handful of large tents were pitched on Friday, with music blaring out until 1am on both nights.
Jacqui King, who lives half a mile away in Leyland Close, said she could hear the noise from inside her home, which is double-glazed.
Others in the neighbouring village of Laneshawbridge said they too could hear the drum and bass music from their properties.
Boulsworth councillor Paul White said he received more than 20 phone calls from residents on Friday night.
He said: “I realised pretty early on that it was going to be loud because I received my first phone call at 4pm on Friday.
“There were even some people camping on Trawden Recreation Ground.
“The organisers showed a blatant disregard for the local community.”
Environmental health officers visited the site to monitor the noise levels after the Night Time Noise Service was bombarded with calls from disgruntled residents.
The number of complaints even prompted Pendle Council to post advice on Facebook and Twitter about who to contact.
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, Mr Lord held the Shamania festival in the same field.
In recent years he has organised other similar events in the borough.
The police can object to Temporary Event Notices being issued on the grounds of crime and disorder.
But as there were no such incidents at Mr Lord’s previous events, they had no grounds to object.
Attempts to contact Mr Lord over the weekend were unsuccessful.
Comments(22)
lgoddard
says...
3:47pm Mon 26 Sep 11
Macrasni1
says...
4:10pm Mon 26 Sep 11
Lancylad
says...
5:43pm Mon 26 Sep 11
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The problem is that once you have noticed something like that it is very difficult to ignore it. I abandoned my attempt to sleep. Generally, I am a fairly tolerant person but I also think that it is not unreasonable to expect a bit of peace and quiet at times when the overwhelming majority of people simply want a good night’s sleep.
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People should not be surprised when those who have this sort of thing imposed on them become angry about it. I was definitely not a happy chappy. I live about a mile away from the venue. It must have been particularly disturbing for those living closer.
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Events such as this should finish much earlier.
dlindley
says...
8:59pm Mon 26 Sep 11
dry stone walls had been damaged with large stones strewn across the road presenting a road traffic risk
in addition the rec and its car park was used as a ad hoc camping ground with fires burning next to camper vans on the car park.
not surprising Mr Lord could not be contact, he has complete disregard for the community and lets not forget the trauma the farm live stock must have suffered with the "loud music" after all this is a working farm the event was hosted on
dlindley
says...
8:59pm Mon 26 Sep 11
dry stone walls had been damaged with large stones strewn across the road presenting a road traffic risk
in addition the rec and its car park was used as a ad hoc camping ground with fires burning next to camper vans on the car park.
not surprising Mr Lord could not be contact, he has complete disregard for the community and lets not forget the trauma the farm live stock must have suffered with the "loud music" after all this is a working farm the event was hosted on
lgoddard
says...
9:53pm Mon 26 Sep 11
Wildman2011
says...
10:25pm Mon 26 Sep 11
jonlivesey
says...
8:36am Tue 27 Sep 11
Burnerley
says...
9:31am Tue 27 Sep 11
Camper vans and people camping not in the site were moved away and all the litter was picked up by volunteers/ community for the festival.
For a town which is practically a dead zone with 1 post-office (soon to shut down) and 1 pub (soon to shut down), you would they would enjoy a bit of excitement in their life. Maybe the Trawden dog walkers and moaners should of got tickets and come and enjoyed themselves for once in their moaning lives.
Instead of "hear-say" maybe this reporter should of come up and seen it for himself and give an accurate report on matters.
freestyler3972
says...
10:26am Wed 28 Sep 11
Mr Colne
says...
11:18am Wed 28 Sep 11
....Im surprised festival goers were not chased out of the village by pitchfork wielding residents.
Trawden is a `family` village ......(read into that as you will)
Mr Colne
says...
11:18am Wed 28 Sep 11
....Im surprised festival goers were not chased out of the village by pitchfork wielding residents.
Trawden is a `family` village ......(read into that as you will)
bobbins222
says...
1:11pm Wed 28 Sep 11
The response from the police "we cant do anything its the noise service". The noise service was basically one woman who wouldnt go up there late at night
Licencing officer who stupidly granted this licence wasnt even around as he was off.
The music was ridiculous, and people have the never to call those who complain boring? My apologies we're all knackered from our working week and would like peace once in our homes. I drove up there during the night laughed, hardly anyone there, with speaking booming psychadelic trance. All I could think of was tiedye tshirts and dancing round hippy campfires. Next time folks, take your stupid, time wasting parties elsewhere. The licencing officer Mr Armfield should be ashamed for granting such a licence.
r0w13y
says...
9:17pm Wed 28 Sep 11
The scale of the event was specified in the the Tempory Events Notice. Two main tents, one smaller "chillout" tent, and a bar. We had nothing at the event that we did not specifiy in the TEN.
I spent a long time planning the layout of this event with the trawden community in mind. All of the sound systems were pointing away from Trawden, so as not to cause distress to the residents. A gentleman who lives directly behind the event location (less than 100 meters from one of the tents) came to speak to me, an was happy that it wasnt causing him any distress.
On Friday after the event had started i was contacted by Mark Walker (PC 1683) who had pesonally been to key points in Trawden to assess whether the music was causing a disturbance. In his report (which i will make publicly available if and when i can) he categorically stated: There was NO disturbance in Trawden, and that he would continue to monitor the event to ensure that it was not causing a problem.
I am led to believe that the bulk of the complaints were not from Trawden residents, but instead from residents in Laneshawbridge. This was due to a combination of wind direction and the sound "dipping" into the valley. Both of which were out of my control. However we did lower the level of the sound systems to try and easy any burden we may be causing to Laneshawbridge residents. I was in direct contact with the enviromental health who also monitored the level of the music to ensure it was at a satifactory level.
Regardless of the above we did recive a few more complaints on Friday night. This then prompted the other organisers and myself to have a meeting early Saturday morning to find a way to recify the issue. We re-arranged the speakers to try and stop the sound travelling quite as far. This did seem to work as i wasn't notified of any other complaints on Saturday. We were again visited by the enviromental health on Saturday, and they were happy with the levels of the music.
With regards to people camping on the recreation ground; there was one incident that was brought to my attention by the park keeper, in which a tent had been pitched on the rec' This was immiately rectified and the people who pitched the tent were asked to move. Following this incident, stewards from the event periodically checked to ensure no one was on the recreation ground.
The Small Trees team and I, strived to make the event an enjoyable experience for the attendees, whilst keeping the nearby residents happy. The popultion of Trawden and Laneshawbridge combined is well in excess of 2000 people. We recieved 20 complaints, one of which was at 4pm on Friday afternoon, which prompts the question..Were the complaints just because of the "noise" or perhaps because of a dislike of modern cultures and these types of events.
Ask yourselves this: Which is better, people causing mayhem on the streets, breaking windows, defacing property, fighting and generally being disrespectful to the community?
Or..A limited amount of people at a legally organised, strictly controlled private party, out of the town center in a couple of tents, with no anti-social behaviour, and full complience with the authorities?
Most would probably prefer the latter.
My apologies to any resident who we caused genuine distress to because of our event, it was never our intention.
Wildman2011
says...
12:44pm Thu 29 Sep 11
pointouttheobvious
says...
2:12pm Fri 30 Sep 11
chrisburnley wrote:The party was secret, the organisers did not give the location out until a few days before,, no locals from trawden were pre warned or pre invityed, and it has been admitted by the organisers themselves that this is because they wanted to keep it on the quiet so they didnt get too many people turn up,, most complaints were done in error by people who had no idea it was a legit event and just heard noise coming from the fields.. The festival organisers were unavailable for contact over the weekend, unless you went an hunted them down, and saw then gurning there tits off.. Many of our residents are elderley or keep themselves to themselves,, and maybe a bit of reasurrance is all thats needed, a bit of pre warning.. or maybe a bit of an ap[ology and an explanation of what the event was about etc etc, instead of just a defiant laugh and a load of **** yous your old and boring.. Im sure if the small trees team were a bit more polite,freindly apologetic and open, it would go along way in securing there reputation as a hard working caring bunch of people, and not just inconsiderate noise makers,, the way small trees is acting by laughing at any minor annoyance they have caused,, and stating things like they are framing the noise complaint, make them popular amongst the festival goers, but not very popular in the local community.. small trees festival, does not give the impression of an electronic dance festival, only to those with prior knowledge, and dont forget, you rent the land, we live in trawden all year round and this companys atitude is exactly whats going to stop them and the other festivals from gaining a license to return. ive lived here 47 years, i suggest if u canty come up with something that benefits yourselves, and the local residents, that you take your party elsewere
moan moan moan
pointouttheobvious
says...
2:13pm Fri 30 Sep 11
pointouttheobvious
says...
2:13pm Fri 30 Sep 11
pointouttheobvious
says...
2:13pm Fri 30 Sep 11
STteam
says...
2:48pm Fri 30 Sep 11
we worked with environmental health throughout the weekend who helped us to find an acceptable noise level. Had anyone needed to talk to an event organiser, all they had to do was contact one of the many security personelle on site and it would have been sorted. i refute the fact that organisers or staff would be found 'gurning their face off' as that is nothing but malicious lies! we have not laughed at any minor annoyance and neither have we said obscene things to or about any of the trawden residents.
we are grateful to the community for putting up with us, and hope the people of trawden who joined in with us had a good time. to the other residents, once again we apologise for any inconvienience we have caused you, and hope you will not give Small Trees a reputation it does not deserve. We all worked really hard all weekend to make it a sucess and have spent nearly another week making sure that the field that was used was left in the exact condition it was in before we arrived.
golazzo
says...
6:27am Sun 2 Oct 11
chrisburnley says...
2:20pm Mon 26 Sep 11