It’s a crescendo as predictable as a chorus from the latest chart-topper – and unfortunately in a minor key. Late last week, a High Court judge ruled that Lambeth Council had bodged the planning process for the Brockwell Live festival series, throwing into doubt whether the events can go ahead at all.
Brockwell Live had been scheduled to run between May 23 and June 8, featuring Wide Awake, Field Day and Mighty Hoopla across several weekends. But after a legal challenge from local campaigners Protect Brockwell Park, the judge ruled that the council was ‘irrational’ in granting the festival organisers expedited planning, nixing the permission.
While Brockwell Live maintains that the festivals will go ahead as scheduled, their opponents have reason to hope otherwise. An ominous statement from Lambeth Council said: ‘We are currently assessing the impact of this judgment and determining next steps.’
At the heart of the legal argument was the amount of time that the festivals would disrupt the normal running of the park. Councils can authorise a temporary change in how parks are used for up to 28 days a year without resorting to full planning permission. Protect Brockwell Park successfully argued that including setup and pack down time, these events surpassed that.
It is potentially devastating news for anyone involved in the festival – the organisers, acts like Belfast controversialists Kneecap, Mercury Prize winners English Teacher and American pop star Ciara and the hundreds of thousands of expected attendees. At a minimum, one can expect that events in subsequent years will be scaled back if this ruling stands.
And the problem this issue raises goes much deeper than one festival series. London in particular, and the UK more widely, has become increasingly inhospitable to live music events. Alongside the cost-of-living crisis and more stringent rules around anti-terror measures, local planning rules and residential noise complaints are making it harder to put on shows.
In the case of festivals held in London parks like Brockwell, Victoria and Crystal Palace, local Nimbys complain that areas of their respective local parks are fenced off, outsiders then converge on the area and the musicians on stage make a racket that can be heard for miles.
As for the historic music venues that periodically shutter around our cities, stories abound of incoming residents complaining about the noise emanating from their established neighbours. Wary promoters have the choice of cancelling shows, agreeing to strict curfews, or even installing noise limiters that shut off power above a certain decibel threshold.
Protect Brockwell Park and likeminded groups claim not to be opposed to live music festivals, so long as they are ‘well-managed, appropriately scaled community events’. But given that the group rejects ‘the assumption that this beloved public green space is a suitable venue for massive, damaging festivals’, it is hard to see how many live gigs can be viable.
According to UK Music’s latest annual report, the British music industry was worth £7.6 billion in 2023. While the top of the market is continuing to flourish commercially, artists stalking the lovingly-named ‘toilet circuit’ of less glamorous venues are continuing to struggle.
Even seemingly successful artists who can top festival bills and scoop up prizes live in a state of financial precarity or support themselves through other work. Lily Fontaine, the vocalist of English Teacher, told a parliamentary committee in March 2024 that the band was earning less than minimum wage despite being signed to a major label.
The number of grassroots music venues shrunk by 3% to 810 in 2024, according to the Music Venue Trust, with almost half failing to turn a profit. In the same year, 72 festivals had been postponed, cancelled or closed, according to the Association of Independent Festivals.
British artists often endure miserly fees for playing live shows compared to their peers in continental Europe or the US, caused in part by the pay business rates, high rents and sharp energy costs that venues must shoulder. Then there are the aforementioned noise complaints, surprise missives from the council, or regulations like ‘Martyn’s Law’ – the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 – which mandate costly but ineffective security requirements even for small venues.
These pressures are slowly stifling Britain’s ability to boast a world-leading music sector. Gigs at both independent venues and commercial festivals like Wide Awake were essential to developing artists like Ed Sheeran, Adele and Stormzy that become worldwide exports, as well as countless smaller artists that have enriched cultural life at home and abroad.
It is understandable that groups like Protect Brockwell Park wish to safeguard their green spaces, but it is not reasonable to move to Zone 2 in London and expect to be shielded from the cultural hubbub that draws people to cities. Campaigners that claim such events are exclusive should also consider their own curtain-twitching contributes to the costs.
The Government claims to be serious about relaxing planning restrictions that stifle so much economic and cultural life. It is not too much to ask that the music industry be allowed to turn the amps to 11 in Brockwell Park for a few weeks a year.
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