Wireless Festival to be held at Finsbury Park for next five years

overandin

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66022074

Wireless Festival will be allowed to take place in Finsbury Park every summer until 2027, despite opposition.

Haringey Council has signed a five-year deal with the festival's promoter, claiming it will raise "significant income" for the north London park and boost the local economy.

Ali

Looking at the picture on the BBC website it looks a lot more organised than the fleadh was in its heyday., I belive Pulp are playing soon according to the comms received at home.

therattle

Oh bugger. The tennis courts have just been repainted so there is some money being spent on the park, but the disruption is massive. I bloody hate it.

Ali

In fact Pulp are playing on Saturday

slats

Yep.

Friday 30 June - Jamie T
Saturday 1 July - Pulp
Sunday 2 July - The 1975
Friday 7 July - Wireless
Saturday 8 July - Wireless
Sunday 9 July - Wireless

Then we get that side of the park back, good to see the tennis courts are still open though.

keithuk

These events seem great for young north Londoners who can't afford to go to the likes of Glastonbury. Giving up a part of the park for a few weekends a year is a fair compromise given the money put back into the parks. There have been events on the park for generations and indeed the fair goes back to Victorian times. I remember going to Pride events and others in the 80s.

rikki

The fact that Haringey Council is putting up loads of posters and a massive Twitter campaign defending their decision on 5 more years, is a sign they know they have a lot of persuading to do. The park isn't just a human amenity - it's an important urban ecololgical site, and these festivals are deeply disruptive to the eco-system of the park. The majority of Haringey residents do not have gardens and the park is such an important resource across the Summer. We need such big changes in society to avert utter disaster, and Haringey Council (admittedly like most other councils too) is just not remotely considering the bigger picture here. Glastonbury has long turned into a carbon-nightmare corporate shindig, and we don't need smaller copies of it in our own backyard.

fwiw

Did Victorian fairs take over 2/3 of the park for several weeks at a time, complete with three-metre steel wall to keep the public out and crowds inside 50,000-strong? I'm no historian but I doubt it.

Ali

It certainly helped local businesses, all the pubs and restaurants on SGR were rammed on Sunday afternoon Didnt hear much noise at all either day/evening.

Ali

The council view https://www.haringey.gov.uk/news/busting-myths-about-our-finsbury-park-summer-events-programme

Ali

This is about the Haringey schools music where local kids get to play on the big stages that have been used by Pulp etc.

Ali

There is also Finfest details and tickets here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/finsbury-fest-2023-tickets-608443951237

Tickets are free.

The Scool music Festival is free and on Wednesday night info here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/finsbury-parks-school-summer-festival-tickets-643654185997

Ali

I think it is a good thing for the Council to leverage the FP sets up so it gets used and experiencde by local musicians and bands etc

Could be life changing for some of them what's not to like about that

therattle

The use of the stages is actually a really good idea. That said, overall I still hate the festival being in the park. The villain is not so much Haringey council which is desperately trying to raise revenue however it can (and to be fair the park shows signs of money being spent on it, eg new playground, tennis courts have just been repainted), but the current govt and its austerity policies which have massively cut central govt funding to councils, making difficult choices like this necessary.

slats

Just been for a run, huge areas of the park are trashed, so sad to see. It's not even recovered properly from Tough Mudder.

Would love to see an itemised list of where all that revenue gets spent to improve the park, like are they ever going to do anything about the toilets?

Ali

With this steady rain and warm ground you might be surprised how quick the park will recover

fwiw

In an ideal world, a public park would be *maintained*, not suffer a never-ending cycle of destruction and recovery.

libertyhall

The five year contract was for for less money each year than before (something fishy you might say) and in spite of the money they get the park is in worse condition that it has been for a long time.