A FESTIVAL organiser has applied for a licence to help stop a repeat of drunken behaviour which occurred at last year’s bank holiday event.

Concerns have been raised over the Barnoldswick music festival Bands On The Square, a three-day event which has been held in the town square in May for the last six years.

Around 30 musicians performed live on the town square stage and more than 2,000 people visited last year’s festival, where Dark Horse guitarist Allan Parkinson, 67, collapsed and died while performing on stage.

Police said there were problems with some drunken guests, who have been allowed to bring their own alcohol to the festival since it started in 2012.

Festival organisers have now submitted a premises licence application to Pendle Council to allow the temporary sale of alcohol at Barnoldswick Town Square between 11am and 11pm for the duration of the festival. If approved, this will allow them to control the sale and consumption of alcohol in the town square.

Some residents have taken issue with the return of the festival.

A couple, from Rainhall Road. which is a three-minute walk away from the square, sent an objection letter to the council to ask for the refusal of the licence.

They said: “I am disabled and can’t walk far and my husband has got tinnitus so the loud music makes him and myself ill.

“All we get is drunk people urinating around our cottage and being sick.

“If we tell them to stop all we get is abuse. The town square is left dirty and smelly with vomit, urine and alcohol. We are so stressed out.”

However, organiser Cllr David Whipp has defended the festival and said: “There is huge support for the event among town people who attended and there have been relatively few problems associated with it.

“The licence application we have put in for this year’s event is to try to mitigate the issues that there were last year where we had an increasing number of people from out of town.

“The event up to now has been based on bringing your own beer and that’s brought its problems.

"The application for the premises licence means we would control the sale and consumption of alcohol and is intended to try to reduce any nuisance caused by drinking too much alcohol.

“The changes are on police advice to address any unfortunate issues that we have had in the past.”

PC Nigel Keates, from the neighbourhood policing team, said the police have had to deal with assaults and alcohol-related problems at the festival.

He said: “We had to deal with a number of issues last year, predominantly youth-related, but there were some adults who could not handle their alcohol and assaulted each other.

“This year the security is being upped and we are looking to get more officers there, including from special constabulary, to increase our numbers and make people feel safe and reassured.

“We are looking at covering it not because we feel there is a necessity but as community officers we want to be where the public want us.

“The festival is getting more and more popular and when things get more popular you get more people.”

The application, put forward by Cllr Whipp, will be discussed at Pendle Council’s licensing committee meeting at Nelson Town Hall, in Market Square, from 1.30pm next Tuesday.