GALA 2024

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

17 hours ago, LivinSaarfMan said:

nightclubs and venues  across UK are under pressure and closing at a shocking rate. A large event like this not only supports the artists playing and the  ‘scene. ’  It also provides traffic and income at local south London venues used for pre and post events/ drinking. 

I don't know if the relationship between festivals and nightclubs is as friendly as you suggest. If someone's spending £100 on a festival ticket, that's £100 they're not spending in a nightclub or bar or restaurant or pub. They're competitors...

...and I don't know how much football these festivals really create. Other people would know better. I happened to come past Brockwell Park exactly at the moment one of those festivals let out and practically no-one was going to the Half Moon, Bullfinch, anywhere along Norwood Rd etc. They were all being corralled towards Ubers and buses and trains. Admittedly that's anecdotal.

[Guest]

👍

Edited July 18 by Neil_R

[Dulwich dweller]

18 hours ago, first mate said:

If music venues are closing in London I wonder if this is because they are having to compete with myriad park festivals, of which there has been an explosion. 

No it's not. Festival season is a short period, a few months in a year. Clubs are closing for numerous reasons.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy9xkxngy95o.amp#:~:text=London's night-time economy businesses are "experiencing closures and,- the steepest fall for any English region.

[first mate]

Doing a quick search suggests that festivals may well be taking money away from other music venues. Outdoor festivals have created a different expectation of what is on offer and people would rather save to attend those than drip feed smaller or indoor venues.

Whether access to parkland should be sacrificed to prop up an ailing nighttime club scene is moot but as a starting point for event justification it is the thin end of the wedge.

In a city where there is so much noise and stimulation overall, the option to access quieter and calmer areas of green and nature should be heavily protected for the benefit of all. There is new research on just how vital for physical and mental health these green spaces are.

If a three day event could be mounted without taking sections of the park out of use for weeks in summer and without the need for extensive remedial work to repair damage, that would be best.

Edited June 15 by first mate

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

7 hours ago, Neil_R said:

Either they book Coldplay as headliners or I'll continue to campaign for them to stop taking over the park. 

My God, haven't the locals suffered enough?

[malumbu]

Au contraire, I bet locals would love that, Coldplay being so soporific that it would send everyone to sleep.  But thinking about South Park, where the kids (and the whole town) discover ritalin, Phil Collins takes this one step further.  Goodness Gracious Me and the Mumbai students doing an English - "what is the blandest thing on your menu waiter - oh no not the Phil Collins" 

 

[Rockets]

Brockwell Park is still fenced off and looks like it will be for some time. The council have put signs up saying that Brockwell Live are responsible for restoring the park (got to love it when council's point the fingers at others to aportion blame!) and that the fences will stay up "until further notice". Looking through the fence gaps I suspect the Brockwell Wall will be up for some time as huge swathes of the park are compacted mud.

The Brixton side of the park was very crowded due to the Herne Hill side being unusable.

[malumbu]

What intelligence do you have?  It's only a week since the Lambeth Country Show.  

[Rockets]

Errr the signs on the fences....there were signs telling people how long the disruption was going to be under the original plans (diversions of public footpaths etc) and now the council has attached a new one over the top telling them that Brockwell Live are responsible for remedying the problems and the fences will be up "until further notice". I suspect they are going have to re-seed or re-lay large swathes of grass and that requires some time to bed in so I suspect the Brockwell Wall will be up for some time.

If you want to go look yourself head on over to the BMX track at the top of the hill and you will find one of the signs there - I was there today.

[fishboy]

On 14/06/2024 at 16:27, DuncanW said:

First Mate, was it not Southwark Council that denied Gala's application for a license to run over two weekends? Am I missing something.

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.

[fishboy]

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.

Edited June 25 by fishboy

[LivinSaarfMan]

3 hours ago, fishboy said:

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.

This could look like a lot or nothing ... 27000 festival goers and 1000s bau users????

I think if you walk through the park you have to agree  there was a  good effort made to clear up 

[fishboy]

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?