fishboy

I've just received this via email, it's the annual box ticking exercise so that GALA can be seen to be listening to the local community. Interesting that they've decided not to host it 'hyper locally' (their favourite expression), presumably hoping it will deter some people so they'll have fewer complaints to try to fend off. Also interesting they've chosen to host "drop-in style sessions" rather than the usual hybrid meeting, presumably to divide & conquer; easier to brush off individuals than a collective? Might be worth being organised and turning up as a group? Hello! We would like to invite you to the Gala Festival Stakeholder Debrief on Wednesday 7th August at Peckham Levels, 95a Rye Ln, London SE15 4ST. We have decided to host two drop-in style sessions. This setup allows us to have in-depth discussions with each of you about the outcomes, experiences, and insights from GALA 2024. This is an opportunity for us to hear your feedback, address any specific queries, and discuss how we can improve future events. On arrival at Peckham Levels please make your way to the bar on level 5 & 6 and one of the Peckham Levels team will direct you to The Auditorium. Lunchtime Session: Time: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM Date: Wednesday 7th August Location: The Auditorium, Peckham Levels Evening Session: Time: 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM Date: Wednesday 7th August Location: The Auditorium, Peckham Levels If you plan to attend please could you RSVP to this email to confirm, if you are able provide a time you'd expect to arrive this would be really helpful too. We look forward to hearing from you and really hope you can make it. Best regards, The GALA team

My partner has never been a confident road user (doesn't drive) but since the cycle superhighways and various other cycle routes increased a few years ago she has been commuting every weekday from ED to St Pancras. She's found some routes that are 75% off road 25% quiet roads so doesn't have the stress of dealing with traffic. It has given her freedom from public transport, increased her fitness, her general health, her mental wellbeing - she absolutely loves her rides every day and does it in all weathers. So more cycle routes please!

The point I was trying to make is that this is a tiny fraction of what is still there, and this is after the organisers have apparently had a specialist clean up team do several sweeps. GALA made assurances (and their licence stipulated) that our park would be returned to the same state as they found it. A "good effort" isn't acceptable; our park is gradually being turned into a rubbish tip. All those items are from the festival - it's exactly the same items that were there in the days after the area was reopened to the public, so they're not from "bau" users. This is a public park - our park - why should we just accept & put up with this kind of thing?

Went for a 30 minute amble in our park last Thursday, managed to find all this just in the southern part of the ex-GALA site. Wasn't really looking that hard, although lots were hiding in the now grown grass or embedded in the now dried mud. So nearly a month after their 'clean up' there remains a huge quantity of non-biodegradable crap discarded by supposedly thoughtful & considerate festival goers & contractors. Just depressing.

There was a consultation which provoked a huge response - 98% vehemently opposed to the proposed extension - after which GALA apparently decided to withdraw the application, citing issues with other promoters not being available, or some such reason. I suspect that Southwark would have happily given them the licence even with such opposition. They don't seem to care that every year GALA fail to uphold all the conditions they have set for the licence, and just give them another the following year with the same conditions. I'm afraid I get really annoyed with all the 'let people have fun' & 'they want a pretty place to dance' & 'it's really well organised' comments. If the punters that go had even an iota of respect & consideration for the park then fine, but they really don't. The amount of litter dropped is staggering - fag butts, filter tip tubes, ring pulls, bottle caps, disposable vapes - and it isn't cleared by GALA's 'waste management' team (as promised - again), so it's still all there - go and have a look. And I've said before, if you haven't witnessed the anti social behaviour that goes on around the site for the whole weekend up close, then I don't think you're in a position to comment on the effect to the local community. I personally saw men & women openly p*ssing in the park, on the streets & pavements around the park, one group having a nitrous oxide party in the street opposite our home, and chucking the canisters into the park. To say that the repair work is looking good is massively missing the point - it shouldn't need any repair work! It's a public park!! It looks like a building site in the middle of summer when it should look like a park! Where people can sit and enjoy the nature & wildlife, not try to pretend it's not really a rubbish tip.

I've just gone over for the first time, and oh my - got to be the worst one yet. My issue has never been with the noise - although it is intolerable, it is only for three days. My issue is the environmental damage to our lovely park, which lasts a lot, lot longer. The obvious damage to the landscape is shocking - so widespread, so deep - but perhaps even worse is the litter. Without even looking too hard, within a few minutes I'd found dozens of bottle tops, can ring pulls, tubes of filter tips, fag butts, cut off cable ties, disposable vapes, even a tampon applicator, all either hiding in the longer grass where the entrance was, or embedded in the dried mud. This is apparently after there have been several 'teams' of litter pickers over the whole area, and representatives of the council have walked the area and given it the thumbs up. These are all things that aren't going to decompose, so will be embedded in the ground forever, literally turning the park into a rubbish tip. I just don't know how this can be allowed to happen, again and again and again? May I suggest that before anyone comments on this post, or on the state of the park, they go and have a good, slow, careful, hard look first, over the whole site. Try and find some litter, I guarantee it will be a matter of minutes before you do, then you'll find some more, and some more, and some more...

I think you're missing the point; this is one of the most popular parts of the park, and after a month of being inaccessible it is now effectively unusable - who would want to sit in the middle of that mess? And yes, they could do 'remedial' works, but it will take months to get back to some kind of acceptable condition, and then the summer has gone. You say "some" of it looks trifling, which means a lot of it isn't - deep corrugations from the trackway etc. The fact is that GALA are unable to return the site to us in the same condition, or better, than it was before - another lie that they spouted just to secure a licence and placate those tiresome 'locals'. So, again, why should we have to put up with this, every year? PS they also haven't cleared away the yellow event road signs yet either - another thing they promised they would do better / quicker this year...

Why should we have to?!? It's our park, it's the summer - why should we have to put up with it looking like a wasteland for even a day after GALA have p***ed off to count their money?!?

Not looking quite how it did before GALA turned up, I'll be very interested to know what they can do to "reinstate" it & how long it will take to recover. And how they're going to remove all the litter - there'll be plenty of fag butts, filter tips, cable ties, bottle tops, ring pulls and god knows what else firmly stuck in that mud...

The noise level monitoring is one of the only parts of GALA that is performed satisfactorily - no surprise that it is done by an independent company! I've had lots of conversations with the genuinely knowledgeable and empathetic sound engineer carrying out the checks, and he regularly contacts the sound desk to get levels reduced. The thresholds are quite technical, and vary depending on which acts are on - headliners are allowed to be slightly louder than the rest. Wind direction is a major factor with the levels, this year it was coming from the South West (Dawson's Hill direction) so the noise was driven more to the East of the park (Rye Hill area). I made a point of complaining about the noise every day even if I knew it was within the permitted levels, on the basis that it was too loud for a residential area on a Friday / Saturday / Sunday evening...

Yes, I did, as the workmen were putting the branches through a mulching machine hooked up to the back of their van. The branches removed were more in the vicinity of 12cm / 5", but it's their length that is more important, and the effect to the overall natural shape of the tree - it has NEVER been trimmed, pruned, pollarded or touched in any way previously. I've attached two photos which hopefully give an indication of the volume of foliage removed. The first is the wall last year - note that it is about a third lower and allows the branches to freely pass over the top. Also note that it looks low enough for people to possibly climb over. The second is the same view this year - higher wall, lower branches removed - note the difference between how far out the branches extend over the path. I've also attached an image of some of the cut off branches, not sure how much it's possible to zoom in on this forum but hopefully gives a better idea of the mutilation. Please don't argue the toss over the level of damage - the point is that a private corporation has requested for it to happen, despite making statements about caring for the park.

They have been asked many times, and the response is always that it is "commercially sensitive" so they can't publish it. AFAIK they also don't seem to want to publish exact figures for how much of it goes towards good things for the people of Southwark, just vague assurances that it pays for the running of the Events Team and numerous free events throughout the year...

A list of things I have seen / experienced in the last 24 hours within 100m of my home which are directly due to GALA i.e. which wouldn't have happened if it wasn't here - Dozens of people p***ing in the bushes along the path between the park entrance opposite Parkside cafe and the festival entrance. Being verbally abused by the people above after politely requesting they maybe reconsider p***ing in the bushes because it's a public park and there are school children around. Dozens of people dumping empty cans & bottles in the park because the bins are overflowing, lots of broken glass strewn around. Dozens of minicabs delivering noisy people outside our home (they're supposed to use the designated drop off area on Strakers Rd) Same noisy people dumping cans & bottles on the pavement outside our home having exited minicabs. Three girls p***ing behind wheelie bins on a residential street in broad daylight Five guys having a noisy / shouty balloon inhaling party in the street until 1am Oh, and our windows rattling / buzzing in their frames from the bass. For 8 hours solid. Hopefully this goes some way to explaining my frustration & anger with this festival, please don't anyone try to justify it or extol it's supposed benefits unless you've lived through the same experience. It's simply the wrong event in the wrong location, run by the wrong people.

Sat & Sun sound checks are 11-11.30am, event runs 11.30am-10.30pm...

I can only hope that the bins were eventually emptied, the hotline said they hadn't got the keys for the bins from the council, which is a pathetic oversight for an organiser of an event like this. To be honest, I just got massively dispirited after two hours of seeing people with zero consideration or respect of the lovely park they were visiting, and the constant reporting of issues with very little resolution, so had to go home - where the windows vibrated until 10.30pm. And then had to put up with five guys having a laughing gas balloon party in the road, chucking the canisters in the park - obviously another side effect of the festival. For all those that say it's just people having fun, it's only three days a year, it's a lovely event - please understand that it negatively affects many people who live very close in a lot of different ways which aren't immediately obvious. Walk a mile in my shoes...

Please, please, please call the hotline - 02071129277 - with all your complaints, no matter how small you think they are. If these things aren't reported, they won't know they need fixing, and they'll be granted a licence again next year because there weren't any complaints this year! For noise, they have an independent nose monitoring guy who goes around the area where complaints are made, and if he finds it is too loud he is in contact with the sound desk and has the power to get them to turn it down! I'm more bothered by the environmental issues - yet again bins are piling up with bottles & cans despite promises from GALA that they had a new, better team who would be on top of it. I've called them three times over an hour and a half about a single bin, but no action. People urinating in the bushes - again there were promises of more portaloos and more security to stop it - nothing. There's some poorly signposted ones up by the rugby posts, but that's it. It seems that they'll say anything to secure a licence, then just forget about it once the event is on. This isn't the first year, they're not amateurs making beginner's mistakes. First pic when reported at 4pm, second pic at 5.20pm after two further calls. If I didn't know better I'd think they just didn't care. It's a good job no one will be using the park tomorrow, or the broken glass could cause an injury....

This is the exact same response I got from the guy in charge on the ground at the time, and from the hotline "It was the Parks people who cut the branches off, not us". What they had to have pointed out to them is that bearing in mind that tree has never needed, or had, any work carried out on it, that the sole reason it was being done is because they requested it! If it wasn't for their need for a higher wall, it wouldn't have happened! It is 100% their responsibility. I have written an email to an Anne Whyte who has been sending out info from the Events Dept to ask who authorised this mutilation, but unsurprisingly have had zero response. The nesting survey is, as always, a box ticking exercise, as it is limited to "within the GALA event site" where there are very few trees. It does note however that there is a large area immediately to the East of the site where there is a "High potential for bird nesting - limit disturbance" The bullet points above are supposedly steps they are taking to limit disturbance in this area, but they seem to have overlooked 8-9 hours of 85db+ noise aimed directly at it. The main stage is roughly where the red circle is on the pic below, and facing that way. Again the hotline parrotted (excuse the pun) that the birds had plenty of other areas they could nest, ignoring the fact that they may already have nests full of eggs / chicks in that area already. As for the hardcore filling of the boggy area, the hotline rep confirmed that this is a temporary fix to enable them to install & use the trackway, and that it would be reinstated post-event. Quite how you remove several tons of rubble after it's been driven over by heavy plant during several days of rain remains too be seen... PS the second survey mentioned is apparently designed to see if the event has had any effect on the wildlife. Bearing in mind it will only cover the area within the site boundary, and that there were no nests initially, it's obviously going to come out with the conclusion that there is no negative impact on the wildlife, which will then be used as an argument for a longer event next year... Yes, this beautiful, naturally shaped tree, possibly the most known & loved tree in the park. The pic below shows how it looks now, so you can imagine which branches were removed. Last year the wall was about a third lower, so the branches could pass over the top, but presumably this was an issue as people could climb over without paying?

Yes, this was going to be my second point. Is this a permanent fix i.e. for the good of the park, or is it a temporary fix i.e. for the good of the festival? I suspect the latter, as I'm not sure how well grass will grow over hardcore, and it's coincidentally right in the path of where they want to lay the trackway to give their heavy plant access to the south of the site. I'll be asking them these questions when i call their "Community Hotline" - 0207 112 9277 - tomorrow...

So it's that time of the year when the industrial plant arrives in Peckham Rye Park to essentially annexe & trash one of the best areas. Again. So to start - the sound of chainsaws this morning triggered a visit for me, to find several large branches being lopped off the beautiful blossom tree near where the Park Run starts - I'm sure you all know & love it. This was blatantly to accommodate the metal perimeter wall, but I don't recall this sort of vandalism being mentioned in any of the meetings, documentation or promises? Previously, this section of the wall had lower panels, to fit under these branches, but I guess this would have been an issue for the organisers - easy to climb over - so they would've had to spend money on extra security? So this year they've arranged to have those pesky, profit negative branches removed, so they can install a higher wall - sorted! For context, I've lived here just under 20 years, and looked across to that tree from our front window every day. It has never been pruned, trimmed, pollarded or touched in any way by the park staff, hence its beautiful, natural shape. This act of vandalism was done 100% to benefit GALA, not the tree. Sickening.

Bride

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Some factual info which may help with clarifying the current situation with the festival. GALA applied for an events licence to extend the festival from 3 days to 6 days. The council opened a consultation, the results of which are attached. It's a really boring read, but an essential one for anyone commenting on this thread. The highlights which justify the argument that it shouldn't be held in this small park are: "The GALA team and the council fully acknowledge that ground reinstatement efforts have been sub-standard in the past." "The GALA team accept that the waste management operation and post-event clean up has not been to a satisfactory standard in the past." "It is acknowledged that the GALA event has a bigger environmental impact..." "It is acknowledged that during the build and break periods, the potential for air pollution caused by idling lorries in the area next to the café and children's play area is increased." "The steel shield perimeter fencing...is acknowledged by all that it’s not aesthetically pleasing" "...acknowledging concerns about unsatisfactory toilet provision... public urination in the park..." "it is acknowledged that hire bikes (Lime bikes in particular) caused obstruction around the park, impacting pavements, pedestrian walkways, cycle routes, and traffic" Remember these aren't teething problems from the first couple of events, they've been doing this now for many years, so they're not getting any better, but the council seem to turn a blind eye presumably because they need the funds... Also attached is an appendix containing all 111 comments submitted to the consultation, by my count only 3 are in support (two of which appear to be from the same person). I think that level of objection can be considered 'overwhelming'? Again, I think comments on this thread should only be made having at least browsed through this. GALA 2024 and one stage shows – stakeholder consultation findings report.pdf Appendix 1.pdf