SJM clear first hurdle to hold biggest music festival in Sussex at Shoreham Airport

Wild Life 2015

Saturday 6th to Sunday 7th June 2015
Shoreham Airport, Cecil Pashley Way, Shoreham by Sea, West Sussex, BN43 5FF, England MAP
only VIP options: £185 weekend or £95 for one day

Daily capacity: 35,000

Last updated: Fri 17th Jul 2015

SJM Concerts, the promoters behind V-Festival and Manchester’s Parklife, have been awarded licences for Shoreham Airport near Brighton in West Sussex to become a venue for festivals with the first, as yet unnamed, two-day summer festival proposed for Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th June this year.

The promoters applied for licences to have live music, refreshments and alcohol sales at the airfield, and Adur District Council’s licensing committee have announced they have approved the application, organisers will still have to seek formal permission to stage the event but getting the licences will be an important step forward.

Adur District Council granted a premises licence to SJM Ltd, authorising the sale of alcohol, late-night refreshment and entertainment but imposed 92 conditions which must be met before the festival can go ahead.

The decision was made following two evenings of public committee hearings and a closed member session on Monday evening. The council said the committee took pains to ensure all relevant representations were made and heard during the hearings.

Conditions placed upon the licence include attendee numbers being set at 35,000 per day (the promoters believe that the site could play host to 70,000 music fans. The event must finish at 1am, rather than the initial proposal for 3am. A sound limit has been set by the council’s environmental health team and this will be monitored throughout the event. The applicants will also be holding public meetings after the event to hear feedback from the local community.

The next hurdle will be The Event Management Plan which must be signed off by the Safety Advisory Group (which includes representatives of all of the statutory authorities) and the director for communities at the councils, in consultation with the chair of the licensing committee. The company will be working closely with the police, the council and other responsible bodies on the Event Management Plan, which includes health and welfare, traffic management and noise disturbance.

With this licence granted, SJM Ltd is now going to work with the local community to address other concerns not covered by the Licensing Act. They have committed to holding public meetings for residents to air their views and influence elements of the proposed event.

SJM Concerts Director Rob Ballantine told The Shoreham Herald, (here), "We thank the licensing committee for their detailed deliberation and appreciate this involved thorough research and decision making.

"We also thank the residents of Shoreham and Lancing for both their support and for highlighting their concerns.

"We appreciate major public events do not just happen without disruption to the day-to-day community life and we will do everything in our powers to provide an event that fulfils our supporters’ aspirations whilst at same time minimalising the disruption to the normal life of this beautiful part of England.

"We look forward to detailed event planning with the district council’s Safety Advisory Group, including the police and statutory authorities. We will also look forward to consulting with the residents and sharing our plans throughout the community.

"We will now start talking to the music business and planning a first-class event for this iconic location and hope to have some very exciting news in the next couple of weeks."

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