Man objects to Land Beyond festival licence bid in Brighton

He spoke out after the Festivals Group Limited applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for a four-year premises licence for the Land Beyond Festival, in East Brighton Park, off Wilson Avenue.

The company wants a licence to hold the festival over the late May bank holiday weekend for the next four years. Its previous licence was for three years.

The Festivals Group has applied to sell alcohol, play live and recorded music, show films and host dance performances from the Friday to Monday from 11am to 10.30pm.

The Brighton company, owned by Alexander Isles, 35 and Paris O’Connell, 34, had originally planned to hold an event next year but is now aiming to return in 2028.

It plans to host live music on a main stage on the Friday and bank holiday Monday, suitable for anyone aged 14 and over.

On the Saturday and Sunday, the festival would have several stages and be strictly for over-18s.

The company agreed to apply for a four-year licence after talks with council licensing officials in the pre-application stage. It had hoped for an “in perpetuity” licence lasting “forever”.

At a council licensing panel hearing, Kemp Town resident Ross Sully, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said that a growing number of events there were linked to antisocial behaviour.

He told the panels of three councillors – Andrei Czolak, Julie Cattell and Alison Thomson – how the boom in events meant that Kemp Town’s “village feel” was now more like a crowded city.

Mr Sully, one of two objectors, said the extra events in East Brighton Park had contributed to this change.

He said: “Where we live, close to Eastern Road, we very often see people who have attended events or who come in visiting the city behaving in increasingly disgraceful ways and most of it is alcohol-fuelled.

“We have people urinating and defecating in the hospital grounds, opposite our home, on busy weekends. We have lots of shouting. We have intimidating behaviour.”

Mr Isles agreed that it was “disgusting” and said the Land Beyond festival had toilets on site.

He said the event had evolved over the past three years, with free tickets offered to people in Whitehawk. This offer was likely to be extend to Kemp Town and Woodingdean.

The festival has a capacity for 9,999 people but usually had 4,000 on the Friday and Monday and up to 8,000 on the Saturday.

Mr Isles said stewards steered people towards the centre of Brighton and transport links and had a litter-picking team.

Photographs of litter submitted by neighbours from outside the event showed items that were not sold on site such as Buzzballs and a bottle of Malibu.

Mr Isles said there were bins for people to dump their rubbish in when they arrived and left the site because they were allowed to bring in only an empty water container.

He was asked about reducing litter by having a cup deposit scheme. He said customers had complained when the company had asked for deposits on steins at an Oktoberfest event.

Mr Isles said: “We’ve seen it where we’ve done it at an even before. They’ll pay £5 for a stein or something like that at Oktoberfest they then lose that cup.

“When they go to the bar, they’re then asked to pay again for the cup. That’s when arguments can happen.”

When asked about using compostable cups, Mr Isles said they still had to be picked and thrown away correctly.

Neither the council nor Sussex Police objected to the application – and, in the event of the licence being granted, the applicant has agreed draft conditions with the police.

Those conditions would require 14 to 18-year-olds to be accompanied by a responsible adult and for an event management plan to be submitted at least five months before the event.

And draft conditions agreed with the council’s licensing team would require security staff to be deployed by the corner of Henley Road and Whitehawk Road when crowds disperse.

The panel retired to make its decision which should be made public within five working days.