THE ORGANISERS of a contentious weekend family festival in Leamington – which attracted numerous noise complaints – appear to have pulled the plug on their own event.
The future of Goa Cream 2023 looks uncertain after Warwick District Council received a message from the organisers at the 11th hour stating they wished to withdraw their application for a temporary events notice for the festival scheduled to take place in September.
WDC’s licensing committee had been set to discuss whether to give the go-ahead to Goa Cream at a meeting on Thursday June 8 or to refuse to rubber stamp the temporary events notice after last year’s event attracted numerous complaints.
As a result the licensing committee meeting was cancelled.
A spokesperson for WDC could only confirm the organiser had withdrawn the temporary events notice, and the event could not go ahead without it, but was unable to shed any light on the reasons for the notice withdrawal.
Goa Cream was set to take place on land adjacent to Chesford Bridge House in Blackdown on September 15 for three days. The event would have run until 3am for the first two days and until midnight on day three.
The event was described on the application form as a charity fundraiser in the form of a weekend family festival.
There were set to be workshops covering yoga, thai chi, dance and crafts, as well as entertainment from DJ’s playing dance music.
Accommodation was to have been camping along with glamping and space for live-in vehicles. Participants could self-cater, while there were also set to have been several food stalls, a cafe and a bar on site.
WDC’s licensing committee had been urged to carefully consider whether to give the go-ahead to this year’s event after last year’s attracted numerous complaints about the noise, as well as raising highway safety concerns.
The temporary event notice covered the sale of alcohol, the provision of regulated entertainment and the provision of late night refreshment.
When an application was submitted for the event to take place in 2022, Environmental Health and Warwickshire Police both objected.
These initial objections were addressed by reducing the hours of the festival, which would have seen it go on until 6am on the second day of the event, and a Noise Management Plan to mitigate extraneous noise from the site to limit the impact on local residents was drawn up.
Despite this, 17 complaints were still received about the noise and residents’ safety concerns were also raised due to the additional traffic onto Bericote Road and the A452.
Goa Cream’s organisers were unavailable for comment.
