Councillors consider new site for Shakedown Festival

Councillors are to consider a proposal to switch Brighton’s Shakedown Festival to a new location at Waterhall this year.

Organisers of the music festival want to move the event from Stanmer Park, where it has been held for the last three years, to the Waterhall playing fields off Mill Road following complaints from local residents in Stanmer following last years event.

Members of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Economic Development and Culture Committee will decide whether to grant landlord’s consent for a one day festival at Waterhall on Saturday July 19 at a meeting next week (January 23).

The proposed event would run from midday to 11pm and have capacity for 15,000 people.

If approval is granted, the organisers will still need to apply for a premises licence which would impose strict conditions of entry, and tight operational controls in areas such as bars, stewarding, security and traffic management. They will also need to satisfy the City Safety Advisory Group (SAG) that the appropriate arrangements are in place. The SAG is made up of the police, fire and rescue, ambulance service and other partners, and oversees large events taking place in the city

Shakedown has been held at Stanmer Park for the last three years and the organisers say that it has outgrown the site there. Waterhall was selected as a potential alternative because of its relative seclusion from local residents and capacity.

Cllr Geoffrey Bowden, chair of the Economic Development and Culture Committee, said: “Shakedown has become a popular event in the city’s calendar and fits in with our aims of encouraging live music and local content.

“We are pleased the organisers have identified an alternative location and will be considering their application for landlord’s consent at this month’s meeting. This is just the first step in the approval process, if granted they would then need to seek further permissions and satisfy robust operational and safety criteria before the festival gets the final go ahead at Waterhall.”

Shakedown has previously been held in September but, as Waterhall is used for football and rugby, July has been selected as an alternative date. Organisers are proposing a one day event this year, rather than staging the event over two days as previously, and plan to operate buses to transport festival goers to and from the site. They would also be responsible for clearing the site and removing litter after the event.