“I came here for the peace and to get away from people,” Nina Krauzewicz admitted, with a laugh accompanied by a puff of the cheeks and a tone of resignation. Looking out of the window of her picturesque home over the small, green village of Talybont-on-Usk in the Brecon Beacons, she is struggling to come to terms with the idea that she might soon be overlooking the site of a festival which could triple the village’s population.
“I would think about leaving,” she said, contemplating what the village already “chock-a-block” with tourists in the summer months might look like with the added impact of Green Man’s proposed expansion here. In spring last year the Welsh Government bought 240-acre Gilestone Farm which neighbours the village for £4.25m with the intention to allow Green Man chief executive Fiona Stewart to use the farm as a hub for the company to grow its brand. Some locals lament that the farm hadn’t been advertised on the open market and was bought without the government having seen a business plan.
WalesOnline understands there are initial plans to host at least three music events a year at the farm with 3,000 visitors expected each time, while Ms Stewart has spoken to BusinessLive of plans to house a bakery and a microbrewery there too. The government is still discussing Ms Stewart’s proposals, still to be assessed by Brecon Beacons National Park Authority and Powys County Council, for the currently flooded farm and has told locals they will be consulted soon.
“You can feel a tension around here about it,” Nina, who has lived alone in the village for seven years, continued. “Between people who are for it and those who are against it. I still send them [those against it] Christmas cards,” she laughed.
Like many here, Nina - a research scientist who spent much of her career in London - yearned for a spot where she could be closer to nature. “I moved from Reading, where I had a very big garden in a row of big gardens which created a sort of wildlife corridor. Of course, developers moved in and wanted to buy all the gardens to build on them. The place gets smaller and smaller and the reason you were there in the first place disappears.
“I’d just grown sick of it to be honest. I initially wanted to move right out to Lampeter and have a smallholding, but I'm the other side of 60 now, I’m on my own and there is a lot to think about. I wanted a bigger plot of land, and a bit of quiet really. I’ve given up a lot of friends, exhibitions, concerts, even shops, to come and live out here - like many others. I suppose we’re a lot like the animals here - shy and retiring and want some peace.”
The bulk of the affluent village spans just a few hundred metres. It has a cafe and a post office which are jointly run from the same building, and the community hall is well-used. There is a garage, a church, and two pubs - The Star Inn and The White Hart - yards from each other. The Usk meanders beside the village and makes for a thriving tourist destination at the end of the Taff trail alongside the vast cycle routes through the beacons, Talybont reservoir and the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal. Villagers say there is a balance to be struck between attracting visitors and allowing the landscape and wildlife - the jewel in its crown - to flourish.
“I had never quite realised just how many animals there were here until I’d lived here,” Nina smiled, reeling off the array of wildlife. “There are curlews, otters are now nesting here, ospreys have been seen here - and there is a significant number of lesser horseshoe bats. If they put a bakery, a brewery, and have gatherings at Gilestone, then that will inevitably lead to deliveries, traffic, noise and light pollution. We have heard a lot about what our authorities are doing to help biodiversity, but this seems like it will have the complete opposite effect. It will bring an influx of people, and the wildlife will simply die or leave.”
Gilestone and its tenants have become accustomed to controversy over the years. Between 2000 and 2010 some villagers assembled a campaign group to fight a ten-year battle to rid the farm of a caravan licence improperly given to it by the National Park authority. Locals told of blaring music from the caravans on the farm day and night which made their lives “a misery”. Villagers won that battle at the High Court, with the then farm owners the Thomas family losing their fortune and restarting their lives in west Wales.
Eighty-year-old retired teacher Gareth Davies, who is the closest resident to the entrance of the farm, said: “The context of the fight we had for ten years is important. It left a bad feeling. The noise was intrusive but also the way in which the site was abused by way of cheap beer was frustrating. It blighted our community having that on our doorstep. You’d be eating your lunch hearing Madonna and Tom Jones blaring out.
“When I saw the Welsh Government had bought it I had thought it was due to the number of trees they needed to plant. I’d have had no problems at all with that - it would have been perfect.
“I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon and say it’ll be another Green Man festival, because we don’t know that. But it has been said there will be musical events with a significant audience, and that is not in keeping with the area. I’m in no doubt that there will be some people in support of the plans because Green Man has a strong following. It’s great, my son comes from Brighton and goes there, he’s been there a lot in recent years. But the closest community to that festival is much further away than we are to Gilestone. This is on our doorstep.”
Peter and Margaret Seaman moved to the village of Scethrog which peers over Gilestone from Hertfordshire 26 years ago. They have made it their mission to roam the farm with bat detectors to determine how many bats live in the stables surrounding the farm and feed within it at night.
“Lesser horseshoe bats are very rare, but in this part of the valley we have found they are in abundance - probably more so than anywhere in Europe,” retired police officer Peter explained with infectious enthusiasm. “We have been trained by The Vincent Wildlife Trust to carry out bat surveys. It led to us gaining funding from Natural Resources Wales to plant 5,000 saplings at the farm to encourage the bats to stay here.
“We were shocked when we heard the news [of Green Man’s proposed expansion at Gilestone] in the press. It would destroy the foraging area for the bats - no question. If you could think of the worst thing to put on a farm in a village in a national park where wildlife is thriving, a festival would probably be top of the list. Many of us moved here for the countryside and we are very proud of what we have here. I doubt many would want to see that diminished by things not in keeping with the natural environment.”
Phillip Darbyshire, who owned a second home in the village for a couple of years before making it his permanent abode 15 years ago, became so disgruntled with the goings on at Gilestone that he set up the Usk Valley Conservation Group to oppose “unsustainable tourism and events which were damaging to the environment and our community”. “Talybont is an easygoing place and a welcoming place,” the retired doctor insisted. “If you came here in the summer you would see how you would struggle to get a car through the village because it is rammed, and we accept that. It’s a lovely spot for visitors. That’s important, because it shows this is a thriving community, a relatively affluent area really, and a thriving destination, and we are not in need of mass tourism.”
Recalling his shock when he heard the news of the plans to transform Gilestone in April last year, Phillip continued: “It caused some bad feeling because until that article appeared no-one in the community, probably other than the farmer who sold it, knew anything about it. A lot of us are pretty peed off that this has been foisted on us with no prior discussion involving us at any level.
“I couldn’t get my head around it to begin with. Why on Earth is the Welsh Government spending £4.25m to support a preferred private company? No doubt one of the main motivations of the group now is to try and prevent large festival-style gatherings on that site. We’ve sought guarantees that it will be capped at 3,000 people but we’ve not been able to get those assurances, so that’s concerning.”
A spokesman for the Welsh Government said the government had been in discussion with Green Man for years to grow the company’s offering due to its importance to Wales. “Green Man - one of five major independent festivals still running in the UK – is an annual event that makes a significant contribution to Wales’ economy,” they said. “We want to harness the additional positive contribution of the festival to local businesses, the community and the Welsh economy.
“The Welsh Government purchased Gilestone Farm to support and grow the Green Man brand and establish a permanent base in Wales for their administrative headquarters and associated business ventures. There are no plans to start a new festival on the site. Gilestone Farm has a history of hosting two events annually of 1500 capacity as well as a number of smaller gatherings. Any events that take place will be subject to the scrutiny and permissions of the relevant bodies.
“The full business plan is subject to robust due diligence processes and consultation with the local community. No final decision on the future of Gilestone Farm will be made until the due diligence process is complete.”
In a postal survey organised by the conservation group 217 people in the village - a 38% voter turnout - voted on whether they would be for or against gatherings of more than 500 people at the Gilestone Farm site. 92% said they did not approve, but some of them added they would like to see a diversification of the land at the farm which would offer jobs to young people.
Ms Stewart has said she has a particular interest in encouraging young people to stay in rural Wales. “What I am very committed to is trying to bring jobs, and good jobs, to young people in rural areas, which we have done with Green Man," she said. "In Powys poverty is 18% greater than the UK and there is an older population. There is nothing wrong with that (older demographic), but we are getting people who see no future for their children in the area.
“That is not how it used to be in rural Wales, which was once thriving with lots of shops, commerce and opportunities. Of course, you cannot have this old-fashioned idea of what things used to be, but you can change it to look at some of the new emerging businesses, especially those to do with wellness, food and beverage, high-end tourism and regenerative farming. There are lots of opportunities to develop these, which I think is really exciting.
“What we would also like to do is open up Gilestone Farm so that we could have a number of different organisations farming it or growing food or produce. We would have a farm manager and at least two new entrants of farmers, but looking at other organisations, particularly in food growing, which is a big thing for us.”
Most of the people in support of Ms Stewart’s plans for Gilestone who spoke to WalesOnline asked to be kept anonymous. One man, 47, who runs an accommodation service just outside the village with his partner and welcomes visitors to stay throughout the year, said: “I can understand people who live immediately adjacent to Gilestone are rightly concerned that there will be some disturbance and I get that. I don’t think I would be too bothered about that, I’m the sort of the person who would just go there and have fun.
“I think there are benefits that outweigh the issues with it. There will be more opportunities for local people. The village does survive on tourism but it could do with an injection of life and I think this could be the perfect opportunity. It has the potential to put the village on the map a little - a bit like Green Man has done with Crickhowell. Crickhowell is such a popular place and is so lovely. I’m not sure Talybont could be a Crickhowell but that kind of improvement to the area I’d love to see. There is a clear opportunity at Gilestone to create a little cluster of independent businesses with a cafe. It could be such a vibrant place.
“People are scared of a mini Glastonbury ending up beside the village every weekend of the year, but that’s just not going to be the case. There is also the history with everything that went on with the caravan site, but it won’t be like that either. That site was 24-7, this will be a couple of occasions a year which might cause disruption from Friday to Monday.
“This is a national park that is there for everybody, it’s not a personal backyard. It’s open to the whole world and it’s here to educate people and to be enjoyed.”
Another business owner, who moved to the village from London a few years ago, said: “I think anything that will provide employment around here, especially for young people, has got to be good. Having to put up with a bit of noise and extra people in the village a few times a year doesn’t take away that it’s a beautiful place and the rest of the time will be quiet and serene. My understanding is that for the rest of the year the site will be a working farm and young aspiring farmers will be able to go there and learn various sustainable techniques.”
John Garland, who has lived in the village since 2014, said he agreed that it could bring more opportunities to young people who usually feel they have little choice but to leave. “Most people in the village I think are against the idea, but to me it’s a good idea in a lot of ways,” he said. “It’s going to bring more people to the village, it’ll get more people in the pubs and the shop, and it’ll offer some jobs. It’s only a couple of days at a time and if you don’t like it you could head away for the weekend.”
Phillip said he disagreed with the notion that expansion of Green Man at Gilestone would benefit the local economy greatly. “I’m not against the Green Man festival,” he said. “I have been and I very much enjoy it. But the model is that you get people in there and you keep them in there to spend their money with the vendors. They won’t be using our accommodation or our services much will they? They might park here. There is no doubt some will call us nimbies, and we have to accept that to some extent we are nimbies - but we have genuine concerns of mass tourism events being catapulted into our village.”
No-one in the village knows the challenges of living and working in a rural destination for visitors more than farmer John Jones - born and raised in Talybont. He tells of the frustrations he experiences monthly, and worries about the crime music events could bring.
“Last year at Green Man was there not a reported rape? Druggies too have been about music festivals since I was young as far back as the seventies. Do we really need this on top of everything we already deal with? I’ve dealt with tourists walking and running across my fields in the middle of lambing season without a care in the world. I’ve had cyclists defecating on my land and have approached them myself to tell them to pick it up and take it with them. I’ve found all sorts on my farm including sanitary towels. I know that’s nothing to do with Gilestone, but it’s things that go on throughout the year in this village that people who live here have to put up with, and we shouldn’t have to.
“The village is chock-a-block here every Saturday and Sunday. We have problems here. They’ve sold this village to tourists and now they don’t want to sort out the problems caused by over advertising. The village will not be able to take Green Man expanding here on top of those challenges.”
John’s sister Pauline Jeanne added: “I work in the care sector, and I’ve seen a mess that the care sector and the NHS are in, and the government says there is no money to sort it out, but they can pay £4.5m for a farm. Who is pocketing the profits if this goes ahead? Is it going back to the government? Is it coming into the village? Or will Green Man have it all?”
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