New restrictions on music festivals in Newcastle’s Leazes Park have been confirmed, in the latest step of a clampdown on noise nuisance in the city.
Major events in the park will be capped at six days per year and be subject to new noise limits, under tight conditions imposed by councillors. It comes after a similar crackdown in Exhibition Park following complaints that major concerts like This Is Tomorrow were turning Newcastle’s green spaces into “outdoor nightclubs”, while action has also been promised to protect neighbours from the impact of the huge LooseFest on the Town Moor this summer.
Charity Urban Green Newcastle, which was handed control of the city’s parks in 2019, went before Newcastle City Council’s licensing sub-committee on May 19 to request a new alcohol and events licence for Leazes Park, where festivals like Noughty 90s and Lost Minds have been held. While a previous hearing over Exhibition Park had proved a contentious affair in which the charity had argued that constraints being imposed by the council risked making it impossible to hold any major events and thereby cutting off a vital source of income, Urban Green this time agreed to the bulk of the suggestions made this time by the civic centre’s environmental health chiefs.
