Northwick Park K-POP Festival organisers respond to local residents

 

  

This is a response sent to concerned residents who had objected to the K (Korean) Pop application to hold a Festival in Northwick Park in the summer LINK.

 

Dear Resident, 

 

Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns regarding our application for a premises licence in Northwick Park. I appreciate that this can feel like a very daunting prospect for our neighbours and I wanted to write to you to try and alleviate some of your concerns. 

 

Firstly, I wanted to introduce the people behind the application. 

 

Magic Sound are based in Brent and are promoters of touring artists from the Far East, primarily in the genre of Korean pop music, known colloquially as K-Pop. Within the UK this genre is very popular with females between the ages of 10 and 24; as a result, our audience is very much a family audience where under 18s are not permitted to attend without parents or legal guardians. 

 

Magic Sound have engaged The Event Umbrella (TEU), who are experienced event producers working extensively in public open spaces across London to manage event delivery, both in the planning phase and onsite through the installation, live and dismantlement phases. 

 

Further to this, TEU also works on behalf of other local authorities managing the application process for the use of public land in respect of event hirers. These dual roles, as both producers and approvers for events on public land means that TEU understand how crucial it is to protect residents and mitigate against impact on the local community. 

 

The premises licence that is applied for proposes the use of the park for one event in 2025, for a maximum of 3 consecutive days and for future years for a maximum of 6 event days, with no more than 3 consecutive days. However, the current event plans for 2025 are for a two-day event taking place on the Saturday and Sunday, 7 – 8 June. 

 

A key aspect of the conditions of the premises licence application is that a number of documents must be presented for scrutiny by the responsible authorities including the Metropolitan Police, London Ambulance Service, Brent Noise Control, London Fire Brigade, Transport for London and others. These documents include security and crowd management plans, noise management plans, litter and waste plans, to name but a few. If these documents do not live up to scrutiny then the event would not be able to proceed. 

 

In this email I will address the three main causes for concern – noise, security (including alcohol) and litter – but also speak a little bit about traffic management.

1. Noise. A professional noise impact assessment is being carried out over the coming weeks that will be used to create a noise management plan to minimise disruption to residents. This management plan will be in line with The Noise Council Code of Practice on Environmental Noise Control at Concerts and will set levels at which music can be played. These levels will reflect the nature of the space the event is occupying.
2. Security / Ingress & Egress / Alcohol. A full security and crowd management plan will be developed, not just for the internal footprint of the event, but for the external areas including the local transport links. SIA stewards will be deployed to fixed positions to monitor and manage crowd behaviour and response teams will be dedicated to the surrounding roads, should issues arise. Additionally we will be working extensively with Transport for London to manage the ingress and egress of people through the stations to the park. Given the nature of the event proposed for 2025, it is unlikely that excessive alcohol consumption will be an issue but that does not mean that the sale of alcohol will not be managed in accordance with best practice. Korean food, music and culture are the focus of Magic Sound events, not alcohol. SIA will be located at the bar and response teams will monitor consumption across the event footprint and the wider park area.
3. Litter. Waste management at the event is again not focused solely on our footprint, but also across the park, along footpaths and residential roads. Teams of pickers and cleaners will be deployed across these areas to ensure that they are maintained and that we leave no trace at the end of the event.
4. Traffic. Another concern that I know our neighbours will have is the management of traffic inside and outside the park; whilst this isn’t a licensing objective, I appreciate it remains important. A traffic management team will be a crucial part of the advance planning process. They will be looking at how they protect residential parking, manage event related traffic whilst minimising disruption to existing park users and ensuring that taxi drop offs are carried out at a designated point with the least impact on houses.

 

Each of these four keys areas of concerns will have dedicated response teams when the event is live. Residents in the surrounding area will be issued with a dedicated contact number where they can report concerns or issues as they are happening. We will then deploy the relevant response team to take the appropriate action. 

 

I would like to finish by saying that whilst we know that events have not previously taken place in Northwick Park and therefore it is unlikely that one can take place without any change to park users’ daily experience of the park, we are committed to listening to our residents and working with them to reduce the impact insofar as is possible. I know the use of spaces in this way is controversial, but they do absolutely benefit the local authority financially and for those residents who have an interest in attending them, they offer an experience and chance to make memories with their families close to home. 

 

We will be offering residents the chance to attend consultation sessions and we have a direct email mik@magic-sound.co.uk where you can contact us to ask any questions. Further to that there will be chance for free and discounted tickets, as well as opportunities for people to get involved with the event. 

 

Yours sincerely, Victoria Hazell Show Producer

 

 EDITOR'S NOTE: Although the above says that it will be a 2 day event the licence application states:

The intention is for MIK to take place over a weekend (2 days). Whilst dates are pending at the time of writing, the speculative dates will be the 7 – 8 June 2025, with approximately 10 days prior for construction and 5 days following for derig,