Big Green Gathering cancelled due to police & district council pressure:

[bendeus]

The utter, utter fucking bastards. Some vicious little jobsworth and his/her miserable, fun-free, spoilsport Tory bastard henchmen have just ruined my week, my kids' weeks, and those of numerous friends and their families.

They should be fucking proud to have the Big Green in their miserable backyard. Instead they try, and succeed, to destroy it.

I fucking hope they get viciously burny and incurable genital eruptions.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Unfucking believeable

^^^^ agree with above comments, Mendip have got things all out of proportion.

Only in good old UK could this barmy nimby licensing get so out of control.

 

[Bakunin]

The utter, utter fucking bastards. Some vicious little jobsworth and his/her miserable, fun-free, spoilsport Tory bastard henchmen have just ruined my week, my kids' weeks, and those of numerous friends and their families.

They should be fucking proud to have the Big Green in their miserable backyard. Instead they try, and succeed, to destroy it.

I fucking hope they get viciously burny and incurable genital eruptions.

I reckon that, barring some miracle or other, we'll have seen the last of the BGG now, at least in its current incarnation. I reckon, in all seriousness and having been there multiple times, that the Mendip council have deliberately done their best to ruin and halt the BGG, not because of any bullshit fears about crime or safety, but primarily because they disliked the political focus that the event had. I think they've done this on ideological grounds more than anything else.

 

[Clint Iguana]

I reckon that, barring some miracle or other, we'll have seen the last of the BGG now, at least in its current incarnation. I reckon, in all seriousness and having been there multiple times, that the Mendip council have deliberately done their best to ruin and halt the BGG, not because of any bullshit fears about crime or safety, but primarily because they disliked the political focus that the event had. I think they've done this on ideological grounds more than anything else.

Plenty of other councils around and plenty of sites that are not on the top of a mountain. Time to move on... if they aint gone bankrupt now.

 

[bendeus]

I reckon that, barring some miracle or other, we'll have seen the last of the BGG now, at least in its current incarnation. I reckon, in all seriousness and having been there multiple times, that the Mendip council have deliberately done their best to ruin and halt the BGG, not because of any bullshit fears about crime or safety, but primarily because they disliked the political focus that the event had. I think they've done this on ideological grounds more than anything else.

I've just been scouting around on some other forums about the whold debacle. Interestingly, it seems that the incompetence of the BGG's organisers and rifts between directors and event management team is being blamed by a number of people who seem to have inside lines on it. It may be that Mendip district council have a valid point, and that the BGG have fucked it up for themselves and everybody else.

It certainly doesn't look like we'll be getting our £500 odd pounds back anytime soon, though

 

[bendeus]

Plenty of other councils around and plenty of sites that are not on the top of a mountain. Time to move on... if they aint gone bankrupt now.

They will have gone bankrupt though, won't they? Can't see them climbing out of this one.

 

[aurora green]

It certainly doesn't look like we'll be getting our £500 odd pounds back anytime soon, though

Surely, they will have to refund people though, won't they?

 

[Bakunin]

Surely, they will have to refund people though, won't they?

I don't know too much about the legal side of bankruptcy, to be honest, but one suspects that those who are owed most are more likely to get their money back first. That may mean that the businesses and people who had paid for concessions such as food stalls, marquee hire and so on will be paid out first and then smaller creditors such as those people who actually paid for tickets.

 

[Clint Iguana]

I've just been scouting around on some other forums about the whold debacle. Interestingly, it seems that the incompetence of the BGG's organisers and rifts between directors and event management team is being blamed by a number of people who seem to have inside lines on it. It may be that Mendip district council have a valid point, and that the BGG have fucked it up for themselves and everybody else.

It certainly doesn't look like we'll be getting our £500 odd pounds back anytime soon, though

Maybe so.... but three days before it was due to open the gates? They should not have issued the licence in the first place if there was a problem.

Got a link to these other forums?

 

[bendeus]

Maybe so.... but three days before it was due to open the gates? They should not have issued the licence in the first place if there was a problem.

Got a link to these other forums?

Here you go. The mod called Atomik seems pretty clued up on what's going on.

 

[Housmans]

Shit, Housmans was heading down there with some books - just got our tickets - is this definite? Is there any chance it'll still go ahead?

 

[Ground Elder]

It's deader than dead Housmans.

 

[Tank Girl]

I've just been scouting around on some other forums about the whold debacle. Interestingly, it seems that the incompetence of the BGG's organisers and rifts between directors and event management team is being blamed by a number of people who seem to have inside lines on it. It may be that Mendip district council have a valid point, and that the BGG have fucked it up for themselves and everybody else.

this is the picture I get, friends that are involved with working there were saying a couple of weeks ago that they weren't sure if was going to be happening, as they'd had no correspondence at all from BGG's organisers about important stuff that would mean the festival could go ahead.

 

[paolo]

Someone's saying Endorset are trying to help http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=118860&st=40&start=40

 

[bendeus]

Someone's saying Endorset are trying to help http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=118860&st=40&start=40

Interesting. But what could Endorse it 'do' to help, exactly?

 

[Ground Elder]

Most detailed account so far

http://www.euskalinfo.org.uk/article/690741

 

[Clint Iguana]

Interesting. But what could Endorse it 'do' to help, exactly?

Take their cider supplies off them?

 

[Gmart]

We should all complain to the author of the letter - [email protected]

In the whole of Europe we seem to be alone in being unable to run festivals without the interference of the government.

 

[bendeus]

Most detailed account so far

http://www.euskalinfo.org.uk/article/690741

But is it an accurate reflection? Naturally the organisers are going to want to cover their arses given the large crowds of angry people who have lost money on this. Is it that Mendip council were intractable and, as described, did their level best to stop the festival from happening, or is it as some have described, that the lack of organisation, and the failure to get things right in the lead up, presented the council with all the reasons they needed to shut BGG down on a silver platter with a nice garnish?

One thing that makes me lean towards the latter explanation is the fiasco with the tickets. Did anybody else find it rather strange that they sent out the wrist bands direct rather than tickets that could be exchanged for them? Rumour has it that they couldn't even organise a printer for the tickets, so sent the bands in desparation, even though this option would have meant that a) they had no idea how many people were actually on the site at any given time, and b) that it presented a very easy opportunity for forgery.

Much as I'd like to believe the 'hippies versus the dead hand of the state' scenario, I have my suspicions that the real reason is far more prosaic, and that the failure was that of the BGG directors.

 

[Ground Elder]

A mixture of the two I suspect. Mendip council and the police adding ever more demanding conditions and BGG directors failing to come up with adequate and timely responses, partly due to a lack of cash.

 

[e19896]

Big Green Gathering canceled due to police & district council pressure:

The Big Green Gathering 2009, which was due to be held on Fernhill Farm from Wednesday 29th until Sunday 2nd has been today officially canceled after the directors decided to hand the licence for the event back to Mendip District Council, after they were threatened with the prospect of a High Court injunction being issued against the directors and owner of Fernhill Farm this coming Monday 27th. The licence was handed back to the directors on the legal advice that the Big Green would not have a chance of winning the High Court hearing.

The Big Green Gathering 2009, which was due to be held on Fernhill Farm from Wednesday 29th until Sunday 2nd has been today officially canceled after the directors decided to hand the licence for the event back to Mendip District Council, after they were threatened with the prospect of a High Court injunction being issued against the directors and owner of Fernhill Farm this coming Monday 27th. The licence was handed back to the directors on the legal advice that the Big Green would not have a chance of winning the High Court hearing.

Re Post from http://www.euskalinfo.org.uk/article/690741 read more there:

 

[bi0boy]

Hasn't there been problems brewing for a while? They should have moved to a different county this year IMO.

 

[Ground Elder]

Thread in festivals here

 

[New X Girl]

This is cold comfort I know, but if you have bought train tickets you can get a refund - but only if they are semi or fully flexible for the days of travel, that is not fixed time, then you're stuffed. Oh and £10 admin is forfeited on each refunded ticket.

 

[han]

How awful

 

[han]

I'm not talking about the post directly above, just the fact that it's been cancelled. It's getting harder and harder to put on a festival that has no (or very little) corporate sponsorship these days, some are still managing it, but there are very few.

 

[editor]

*threads merged

 

[laptop]

It's getting harder and harder to put on a festival that has no (or very little) corporate sponsorship these days, some are still managing it, but there are very few.

Which, it seems to me, is the point of all the regulation and licensing. It's immoral to have fun without advertising/sponsorship. Worse, it might give people ideas.


Yes, fire safety is important - but how many festival sites have burned down, ever? Is the council's claim a spin on their real fear of "disorder" - as in, not-very-capitalist fun?

 

[northernhord]

What a twat, I was well looking forward to this

 

[Ground Elder]

From Schnews

The injunction was due to be heard in the High Court in London on Monday. However, before that could happen the BGGs organisers surrendered the festival licence on Sunday morning. As soon as that was done a police commander at the meeting was overheard saying into his radio “Operation Fortress is go”. Police have already set up roadblocks and promised to turn festival-goers back. Chief Inspector Paul Richards, festival liaison, later confirmed to one of the festival organisers that “This is political”, adding that the decision had been made over his head at county level. One of SchNEWS' sources on site said that the police were frank about the fact that the closure had been planned for two weeks. “This was a blatant act of political sabotage – the Big Green Gathering is now completely bankrupt, they knew that we were going to be closed down and yet they carried on allowing us to spend money hand over fist on infrastructure”.

http://www.euskalinfo.org.uk/article/690737?&condense_comments=false#comment44752