Wireless

Ali · February 2021

Is apparently on in the park 2nd to 4th July.

cmo · February 2021

Bleh. That's all I can intelligently muster.

Jennymc99 · February 2021

I thought this had to be a joke but no - superspreader events here we come. Its like the country cant wait to put itself back into lockdown. Also means loads of park inaccessible for most of actual residents who are desperate for some outside space after a hard winter inside. Bonkers.

Sutent · February 2021

This is nuts.. After seeing what I have in the NHS in the last year I cannot believe this is allowed to happen. The public have no idea how bad things have been and still are

krappyrubsnif · February 2021

Money talks. People will die.

kreuzkav · February 2021

Iti s nuts. No big conert should happen until next summer 2022. Bonkers. Crazy. Trying to prove a point that we're all immune. But variants, it's still early days......

Scruffy · February 2021

Well maybe it’ll be a bit of accelerated natural selection based on a tendency towards ignorance (rather than physical frailty); a dose of chlorine in the gene pool, so to speak. Though it’s a shame that it will put the attenders’ loved ones, friends, and other innocent contacts (health workers, shop staff, bus drivers, etc.) at higher risk too.

(And somewhere in the distance, a till went “kerr-ching!”)

Luirette · March 2021

Tickets aren’t available for wireless yet, there is no lineup and there’s nothing on the Finsbury park major events website, so maybe it’s more of a hope on their part rather than a done deal.

libertyhall · March 2021

This is outrageous - and demonstrates the callous disregard Haringey council has for local residents - I suspect they think they don’t have to worry about Hackney and Islington voters who can’t throw them out. They hung on until the last minute before they called it off last year when it was beyond obvious they had to. I can’t decide if it’s stupidity or sheer bloody mindedness at play here but they look like making the same mistakes again. Local Council elections only 14 months away.

StroudGreener82 · March 2021

Some good news - Wireless won't be taking place in Finsbury Park this year: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/wireless-festival

"Unfortunately we couldn't make it work in Finsbury in September but we can in the beautiful Crystal Palace Park!"

Sutent · March 2021

Thats amazing news!

LukeG · March 2021

To some extent. If the move is permanent, that's hundreds of thousands in lost revenues for the council and local business.

Haringey Council desperately need the money and they can't get it many other places. If a few weekends a year is the price for wider investment in the park and local area, I will happily pay that.

We've already lost pubs and music venues over the years, if we lose festivals and Rowan's (yes it is on the cards for redevelopment) we'll just be another irrelevant quasi suburb.

Many of my peers (30-40 years) are choosing the south to live rather than north of the river, which in the long term, will also mean a change of local culture.

grenners · March 2021

Everything changes in London and Haringey will find some new festivals or concerts or events. Wireless would never last forever anyway. New events might be more diverse than a dance music festival.

Ali · March 2021

Bring back the Fleadh

https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=fleadh+finsbury+park&client=firefox-b-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwirj_Lg3MbvAhXeRhUIHbYyDqYQjJkEegQIBhAB&biw=1920&bih=938

MHP · March 2021

I agree Ali. Bring it back. Such nice people there and never any trouble. I saw Neil Young there, probably the best concert I’ve ever been to. And it p***ed down!!

krappyrubsnif · March 2021

Bob Dylan! Madness!

Scruffy · March 2021

Bert Ambrose!

Arkady · March 2021

I have seen Dylan nearly 20 times and that Fleadh gig was the worst by a fair distance. There was a period c.2006-10 where he decided that he didn't even need to try to sing and that a weird guttural throat noise would do instead, and 2009 was the nadir of that.

krappyrubsnif · March 2021

@Arkady: nail, head. And it pissed with rain. Nevertheless having Dylan grunting down the road held a certain charm.

kreuzkav · March 2021

Didn't he record some music up at Dave Stewart's (I know it's not his anymore) studio on Crouch Hill? He's a bit of a local lad.

Arkady · March 2021

He was there, and interviewed there by Andy Kershaw, but no recordings have circulated.

TheMimsy · March 2021

Banners in Crouch End has a table with the inscription 'Bob Dylan sat here'.

Ali · March 2021

Here is the urban myth on Bob D and CE

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/20/urban-myths-bob-dylan-review-his-bobness-pops-to-crouch-end-for-tea

libertyhall · March 2021

I won’t shed any tears over Wireless moving (hopefully for good). Many local businesses forced to close due to antisocial behaviour making it impossible to trade. Haringey Council were irresponsible in ever allowing such a large event which robbed us from using much of the park for many weeks.

Have events but keep them smaller with short set-up times.

cmo · March 2021

@libertyhall that for me was the key bit - the event was only a weekend but the fencing and essentially large shutting off of the park went on for weeks. It's purely psychological on my part but trying to enjoy a miniscule amount of peace and green with huge metal shutters, diggers and security just seemed to ruin the experience.

Sutent · March 2021

Our ancestors fought hard to have the park created for public use.

"In 1841, local residents of Finsbury (some four miles south of the present Park) drew up a petition that was sent to Queen Victoria. The plea was for the creation of a People’s Park to alleviate the conditions of the poor and provide much needed access to open space for leisure and play"

https://2nq.uk/exhibition/01-park-people

Ali · March 2021

The picture has the ladder in the background when it was still farmland

fwiw · March 2021

Even after the ugly fences and all equipment were finally removed, the scars and damage to the grass would take months to recover.

Not to mention the hundreds of scattered nitrous oxide cannisters their so-called "deep clean" would miss.

Good riddance, Wireless. Don't come back.

LukeG · March 2021

Again, gone goes any improvements to the park we need. The tennis courts, new play area and the extra maintenance jobs are all do do with Wireless money being reinvested into the park.

Look, Wireless needs to be managed better for sure, but the Council needs the cash desperately.

fwiw · March 2021

Using Haringey's own example calculations for a 30,000-capacity two-day event, the total cost per punter per day is a mere £4.23.

https://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/fees_charges_april_2021_-_march_2022.pdf

Make that 50,000 and a three-day event, and it's £3.39. Even crank up the setup/down by an extra ten days and it's still barely over £4 total.

With event tickets easily £80+ per day, plus plenty more revenue generated within the walled compound, the slice for the park is tiny.

I'm not in favour of huge park events, but I'm sure Haringey could have easily wrung several multiples of what they took out of Wireless. Let's say they charged 3x, but held the event only every three years. Or 2x every two years. That would be more manageable. What's frustrating is when it feels like one event has cleared off only for another to be setting up soon after.

Luirette · April 2021

Definitely won't be missing the Wireless Festival - I was too big, too long and too aggressive. Local businesses should never be in the position of having to shut down for a weekend due to anti-social behaviour. Hopefully the Council can find some more appropriate music events to bring money in. #bringbackFleadh (though maybe not Bob Dylan. Was at that gig too and it was truly awful).

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