Sunfall feedback 2016-2017 1 of 13
Contents
1 FOBP Press Release after Sunfall 2017
2 Sunfall 2017 comments to FOBP
3 Sunfall 2016 comments to FOBP
1 FOBP Press Release after Sunfall 2017
The Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) views with the greatest reluctance the taking over of our beloved park by events such as last Saturday’s (August 12) Sunfall festival. The noise generated in such a small park so close to so many dwelling houses can be intolerable to the local community. And we believe the shutting down of a huge swathe of the park to public access for nearly two weeks is too high a price to pay for any income these events generate.
The fact that Sunfall organisers had inadequate arrangements in place to process people coming to the event, leading to huge queues, some violence and the Metropolitan Police being called does not endorse their competence in the eyes of local residents. The exit from the Park in the evening seemed almost as badly managed as the queue to get in. People were streaming out, causing huge crowds at the Brockwell Lido gate, with no stewards on hand to keep people moving or manage their exit from the Park. Outside the Park, Sunfall visitors were vomiting and urinating in local gardens.
Hundreds of nitrous oxide canisters and other rubbish covering the grass after Sunfall are not FOBP’s idea of the promised protection of Brockwell Park—and this lack of an organised litter policy again speaks to the organisers’ incompetence. The exercise platform, created at great expense for ‘the community’ was enclosed by the fencing without notice, and has been unavailable to people for at least 10 days. We cannot see how that could be justified.The much-loved model railway track, run entirely by volunteers, also sustained damage to its track ballast, while before the event had even taken place, there was an appalling churning-up of the ground just inside the Sunfallvehicle access area.
But it has come to FOBP’s attention that Sunfall organisers, without alerting or seeking consent from Lambeth Council or Lambeth Events, ripped one park memorial bench off its granite stand. When she discovered this, its donor was in tears at the disappearance of this memorial to her brother. She is making a formal complaint.
Another bench, commemorating a former Lambeth Mayoress, was seriously damaged during Sunfall.
These benches, gifts at significant expense of family and friends in memory of loved ones, are of considerable importance to their donors, regularly visited and cherished by them; and they are greatly appreciated by many other park users. To remove completely one bench on a whim, telling nobody, and to damage another, shows shows utter contempt for decent human standards and for the park and the council that mistakenly, it seems, hosted Sunfall
Peter Bradley, Chair, Friends of Brockwell Park, said: ‘This is intolerable behaviour and FOBP condemns it unreservedly. We look to Sunfall to provide a speedy apology and restitution commensurate with the hurt they have imposed on the donors.’
He continued: ‘It is London Borough of Lambeth’s official events policy to hold a number of such events in Brockwell Park a year, something FOBP has repeatedly told the Council is completely unacceptable. On the showing of this year’s Sunfall, with its chaotic internal organisation and its flagrant disrespect of the park it is privileged to occupy, FOBP believes there must be profound questions over the acceptability of ever again holding even one annual event of such a size in Brockwell Park.’
Sunfall 2017 comments to FOBP
‘I live near to Brockwell Park and before the Sunfall Festival had even started I was dismayed at the damage done to the grass by lights on stands being put in place. Large tracks of mud were left where grass had been churned up by equipment thoughtlessly being dragged into place. The noise levels were high I could hear it in my garden but the main issue I had with the Festival was the high level of rubbish and detritus left behind which still had not been cleared up when I went to the lido on Wednesday morning days after Sunfall. It seems the whole event was very badly organised with little regard for the effect on the local community and environment’
KM, website comment.
‘I returned to the park with my dog this Monday (14th August) after having been away for the last few weeks. Without knowing all the background information above, or the chaos during the event itself, I was pretty shocked by the aftermath. The hoarding that closed-off the area was ‘aggressively’ massive, there was tons of rubbish and a terrible smell of urine and waste around. Now that most of the construction has been removed, it has left both huge bleached areas of grass and stretches of stinking mud. It has literally wrecked the area it covered. The ‘security guy’ at Brockwell Gate was busy ordering pizza when I walked past him (?!) but there also seemed to be a lot more people hanging around in that area of the park drinking that I haven’t seen in the park before. It doesn’t compare to the efficient set-up/clean-up of the super-organised LCF, or the smaller w/e festival earlier in the summer. Those events demonstrate a real care and respect for the park and local community. I’m also upset to hear about the benches – can’t quite imagine how anyone would think that was an ok way to behave. Please don’t let this festival come back to Brockwell next year!’
GD, website comment
‘My wife and I are completely disgusted by the Council’s willingness to allow such an utterly inappropriate event like this in Brockwell Park. We fully support the Friends’ position.’
KM, website comment
‘Allowing this festival to take place in one section of the park has caused great damage not just to that area but to large parts of the rest of the park and surrounding area. It is clear that the organisers could have done far more to prevent this damage but as they didn’t, the event and these organisers cannot be allowed to return to the park. There is no excuse for lazy organisation for an event that charges £65 per person per session. If future events like this are allowed to take place and result in similar damage we are heading to a situation where a well-loved and cared for park which is used by all members of the community becomes a grassless wasteland (much like parts of Hyde Park) used simply as a platform for ticketed events that exclude the majority of local residents. Those who grant permission to events like this must consider the full impact of the event on the community and see things within their longer term context: there is no need to run events like this to fund the care of the park, large parts of which are already looked after by volunteers.’
H, website comment
‘Having attended many such events in the past across London, I think that the service they provide, when done well, is often something very wonderful that is an important thing in the lives of large numbers of fellow residents of this great city of ours and should be supported (in moderation of course!). We live in a major global city and the occasional day of loud noise and inconvenience is par for the course. However, it is vital that the organisers of any such event treat both the park hosting the event and the people who attend it with full and proper respect and it is clear that the organisers of Sunfall did neither, so I would like to hope that the Council will decline any requests for future events in the park from this particular organisation. We also need some kind of enquiry/report on the events of last Saturday so that we can come up with more robust procedures and rules to ensure there is no repetition of this in future. And, given that there had been similar queuing nightmares at other events in the park in the past, I think it is also fair to ask why this was allowed to happen again. But please let’s not use this as an excuse for curtailing all such events in the park. A definite yellow card, but not a red one just yet.’
SB, website comment
‘Oh my goodness, really shocked to hear about the bench damage & can’t understand what might have happened there? So upsetting for the family concerned & I can see now that other families will feel anxious about this happening to theirs if there are future events like this at the park.’
VB, website comment
‘How sad that 2 benches were affected in this way’
HiddenHerneHill on Twitter
‘Lessons and warnings. If you are going to let out parks then you need strong and effective parks management in the council’
@AjKCroydon on Twitter
‘Vandalism to the Brockwell Park miniature railway during Sunfall Festival’
Ivanhoe Residents on Twitter
‘@SunfallLondon my friend’s leg/phone crushed by a gate + people pile up in a 3 hour queue - we need a refund and compensation’
@Lozzagram on Twitter
‘Inconvenient & a fair amount of disruption but I can just about live with it (ask me again when it's over). Points for consideration. Dulwich Road/congestion has been a bit rubbish today so perhaps a limited parking restriction should be consideredfor future events - maybe one side of the road. Limit on these type of events per year should be put in place (maybe there is one already?), Event organisers should be held to account if they can't put things back to normal within a limited time frame (that churned up grass photo hurts a bit when you love a park so much) & can't manage their events properly (3hr wait to get in - I'd be livid). Also - more bins! Went past earlier and the amount of litter by the front gate was dire even before the festival had begun.’
NG on Facebook
‘Lambeth services have been squeezed disastrously by austerity. The festival is annoying - really, I don't like being excluded and over-run - but it is a relatively short-lived, low-impact method of trying to plug the vast gap in Lambeth's core funding.So, yes, it's worth passing on info to Lambeth so they can improve the experience around these events, but I also think we should see them as creative attempts to keep our area afloat.’
PG on Facebook
Facebook comments:
KH: In Milton Road, the noise of the event itself was just about tolerable, and I would accept it if we got the free firework display in November back in compensation. But the disturbance from the helicopter was intolerable.
JC: The noise was pretty bad, a constant doof doof until about 9.45 last night. Lack of toilets outside was also an issue with people using bushes on nearby roads. But I do agree the Council needs the money. Let's hope they are charging a fee in line with the profits made by the organisers
YL: I hate the "wall". the vehicles, the churned-up grass. Shocked by the removal of the exercise platform. Dreading the noise. Workers on site report finding several bags of drugs during clean-up, And report alcohol being served to under-age young people.
Sunfall 2016 comments to FOBP
1
Noise levels were disruptive at XX Half Moon Lane, a good 500 metres away. Mainly the booming base line of the music: at times the house shook. JB
2
Very noisy with penetrating sub bass. Much louder than any other park event. Very intrusive and kept me out of Herne Hill for the day. Had to keep windows closed and could not use my garden. Absolutely unacceptable in such a built-up residential area. MB
3
I live on Brockwell Park Row and so was not looking forward to the Festival. I was heartened to receive the pre-event information. I thought that was excellent PR and a very good way to set expectations and explain potential disruption. It was also nice to be offered free tickets (although I did not apply for any).
At the end of each day, I was pleasantly surprised by how little disruption there was over the weekend. The earlier), which I thought was reasonable. So perhaps the organisers did not play their music to the highest permitted level?
I hope this helps. I would prefer not to be quoted. Anon
4
We live on Fawnbrake Avenue towards the Poplar Walk end.
The bass noise which I assume was coming from the event in Brockwell Park was an intrusion and must have been well in excess of 75 decibels! PG
5
The noise, at the July 9 Sunfall festival and extending a mile in all directions from the central tent, was deafening, and vast swathes of the front grass slopes of the Park have been ruined.
The Park is a public amenity, protected in statute for the residents of Lambeth. It’s not a venue for private ticketed commercial concerns that prevent use of the Park by the public for days at a time. The noise is bad for residents, bad for the wildlife, bad for relations between the users of the Park and the Council. Bad, ultimately, for principles of democracy and civic accountability.
We’re tired of fighting these battles. The council’s strategy is clear: monetise the Park, come what may. No voice of protest – and there have been many – has been taken into account by any consultation or complaints process.
I would like FoBP to investigate the legal position of the council, its decision to raise the decibel level without adequate notice, and what provisions there may be for redress.
Library closures, reckless over-use of the park for this kind of event, noise pollution, stitch-ups with developers over the demolition of the Cressingham and Central Hill estates – all appalling abuses of voter trust, all unsupported by residents, council tax-payers, and – it may be – the law. Don’t imagine there won’t be a price to be paid at the ballot box.
I am copying this reply to Chuka Umunna MP. WE
6
Many thanks for giving me the opportunity of voicing my opinion regarding last weekend’s event in Brockwell Park.
I was nursing my partner on Saturday, unable to open any windows because of the hellish noise throughout the day.