Alarm over plans for three-day border rave

Gavin McEwan, local democracy reporter

Locals have raised concerns at plans for an annual 5,000-guest music festival to take place at a remote spot on the Welsh border over the next five years.

Monmouth-registered Gemfestival Ltd has applied to hold GemFest, an “eclectic range of electronic dance music” over the weekend between June 13 and 16 on farmland near the hamlet of Walterstone.

The festival drew around 1,500 revellers at a nearby site last June but is now looking to grow to up to 5,000 in the coming years, the firm’s application says.

Though spanning the river Monnow which forms the English-Welsh border at this point, the licensable activities – alcohol sales, late-night food and drink, live and recorded music – are to be on the Herefordshire side, hence the application to Herefordshire Council.

These would continue until 2am on the Friday and Saturday nights, and till midnight on the Sunday.

Noise management plan

A noise management plan is to be agreed with the council beforehand, with noise levels to be checked during the event, and a “noise hotline” number provided to local residents.

Attendees would arrive on the Welsh side of the Monnow where camping would be provided, with two temporary bridges alongside an existing narrow public footbridge giving access to the six stages, stalls and bars, accompanying maps show.

But Longtown Group Parish Council said policing the event would require “significant manpower”, access for emergency services both to and within the festival site would be “severely restricted”, and the music and crowd noise would cause “extreme nuisance to local people”.

Individual responses have been made to the application, though no notice of it has yet appeared on Herefordshire Council’s licensing webpage.

Drugs

Cedric Mathison said it would be “naïve to think there will be no illegal drugs” at the event, while the noise plan “would only be submitted after the licence is granted”.

The proposed 600 parking spaces would be “totally inadequate” for the forecast number of attendees, and there were no details of the temporary bridges, which “would need to be substantial structures”.

The river would also be vulnerable to “disposal of litter, pollutants and human waste”, he added.

West Mercia Police was asked whether it too objected to the festival proposal.

Locals have already been notified that, given the concerns raised, the application will be decided by the council’s licensing committee on April 17.