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FP Muder
FP is in the process of being wrecked Bring on Wireless etc nothing like damage going on today
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Ft t
So they're clearly getting the park on the cheap.
"The impact of the event this year has caused several weeks’ worth of damage to the park and as a result we have had to rethink our approach. To prevent the risk of this repeating, we have decided that this event will not be held in Finsbury Park going forward".
NEWS
Tough Mudder races leave Finsbury Park ‘looking like the Somme’
Locals say cherished green space is unusable after the weekend-long event
Tough Mudder races are marketed as “the world’s best obstacle course and mud run” but the impact on the park used has angered local residents
Constance Kampfner, David Brown
Monday April 17 2023, 5.45pm, The Times
One of London’s best-known parks was left looking like a “First World War battlefield” after thousands of competitors paid at least £100 each to run through mud.
The Tough Mudder race through Finsbury Park, north London, left grassland churned into sludge and nesting birds disturbed during the weekend obstacle course.
Tough Mudder describes itself as “the world’s best obstacle course and mud run” with races of 5km and 10km in the park and at other venues. The race has been described as having a “cult-like following” among middle-class professionals who consider it more challenging than traditional marathons.
Critics say, however, that the damage highlights the harm caused to public parks across the country as local authorities let them out for commercial events. Social media users compared the of sea of mud in Finsbury Park with “the Somme”.
Tom Graham, co-chairman of the Friends of Finsbury Park, said 7,500 runners each day had taken part in the events at the weekend, the first Tough Mudder of 2023. He said the “considerable” damage covered most of the park, a feature of north London since 1869.
Amid the furore, Haringey Council, which leased the park for the event, said on Monday that it would not be used for Tough Mudder races in future. Mike Hakata, the deputy leader responsible for the environment, said: “Tough Mudder events have taken place successfully for four years now, enabling thousands of people young and old to enjoy the outdoors and improve their health and wellbeing, at the same time as raising significant funds for charitable causes.
“The impact of the event this year has caused several weeks’ worth of damage to the park and as a result we have had to rethink our approach. To prevent the risk of this [being repeated], we have decided that this event will not be held in Finsbury Park going forward.”
He said costs would be recovered from the event organiser and that no wildlife habitats or trees had been damaged.
Problems began early last week with lorries bringing in equipment, including bowsers supplying “water features”, which churned up the grass.
“The park has been scarred, there is mud everywhere,” said Graham, “This is not about Nimbyism, this is about concern for green space and for ecology. Finsbury Park is bordered by dense urban housing, so for most people this is their garden.”
Tough Mudder races incorporate a mixture of different obstacles for participants to attempt with an emphasis on teamwork
The areas damaged included an orchard planted by local people where nesting birds were disturbed.
Graham said some parts of the park were prone to flooding and highlighted the disused five million gallon capacity underground reservoir, which featured in the James Bond film Skyfall. The park is used for a number of major music events including concerts this summer by Jamie T and Pulp and the Wireless festival.
“We are very concerned at the lack of care by the local council. This is a nationwide issue where local authorities are sacrificing their public spaces for commercial events because there is insufficient funding for parks.”
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary and MP for Tottenham, described the damage as “utterly appalling” having visited the park on Sunday.
“I have nothing against @Toughmudder but Finsbury Park is an inner city urban park and the damage done is an environmental disgrace,” he Tweeted.
“There are serious questions about how and why this licence was granted, enforced and policed.”
Locals shared images of the aftermath of the event on social media and expressed dismay at the destruction left behind
Izet Osmaj, 46, who has lived near the park for more than 20 years, said he had been shocked watching the contestants over the weekend. “When I saw them, I said, ‘What are you doing guys?’ Reptiles and pigs roll around in the mud,” said Osmaj.
“I was very excited to see the spring and enjoy the beautiful green as God created. But look what they have done. It’s going to take years to recover. It doesn’t look like a park anymore, it looks like a bomb site. It makes you depressed.”
Lauren Bradley, 33, who recently moved to the area, was looking forward to spending the summer days relaxing in the park.
“My initial thought was when will people be able to go out and sit on the grass again, because it’s just getting nice,” she said. “But I think a lot of these areas will need to be reseeded. And it’s the whole park they’ve used, not just a section of it.
“It would make more sense for them to do this on private property or in the winter when people aren’t using the park as much.”
Large areas that had previously been grassy expanses had been churned into mud by the volume of people taking part in the event and the placement of obstacles
Jo Syz, a local filmmaker who shared footage of the damage online, said Finsbury Park was lots of people’s only access to green space. “It’s a very diverse area. The Manor House and Seven Sisters side is one of the poorer London areas and lots of people don’t have gardens.”
Syz added: “It’s going to have a really profound environmental impact.”
Morden Park in south London suffered similar damage during a Tough Mudder event in October 2021. Merton council said that the organiser’s deposit was withheld to pay for restoration work.
Tough Mudder was founded in 2010 by Will Dean, 42, a former counter-terrorism expert at the Foreign Office who developed the idea while taking an MBA at Harvard Business School.
Races began in the US and expanded across the world, with 700,000 participants in 170 events in the two years before the business collapsed in 2020, with the British arm owing more than £4 million. The business was sold to its rival, Spartan Race.
Gina Harkell, a trustee for the Friends of Finsbury Park, said Tough Mudder should “never had been held in the park”.
“Finsbury Park is becoming a managed decline arena for big events,” she said. “It’s just a cash cow for the council.”
She said 200 saplings planted by the group had been torn down ahead of last year’s Wireless Festival, which attracts around 150,000 people across three days in July, to make way for metal fencing.
“There are certain things we’ve accepted because it is a big park and we know that it’s nice for people to have some entertainment. We just wish the council would take more care of how they do things,” Harkell said. “But one of the councillors has told us that their priority is events. Events first, park second.”
Tough Mudder said it had worked closely with Haringey Council. “Together, we recognise the damage to the park and the impact it has had on the surrounding community,” it said. “We are working with all relevant stakeholders to restore and repair the damaged areas of the park.”
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/corporate-cringey-cult-tough-mudder-2290323
On that note does anyone know of a link where you can see all the dates for festivals etc in the park?
It has event fro m Baskett Ball Finals to Pulp!