Christopher BarrettHaringey Council is looking to secure five-year deals with festival promoters, such as Wireless Festival’s Festival Republic, to stage annual events at North London’s Finsbury Park.
A council spokesperson said the move is part of its manifesto to expand the range of events held throughout the borough and that securing event bookings over several years has many benefits to the council, residents and staff working in the park: “By agreeing dates early, the council has security in knowing what income is expected and allows us to plan accordingly.”
Wireless (cap. 49,999) was staged at London’s Finsbury Park from 2014 to 2019, with Haringey Council imposing strict sound and curfew conditions on the event from 2018. The festival was then moved to South London’s Crystal Palace Park in 2021, where it returned last year with sister shows also presented at Finsbury Park and NEC Birmingham.
The move to secure five-year deals by Haringey Council has met with anger from residents group Friends of Finsbury Park, which has written to the local authority to outline its objects.
It said, “The proposal to extend major events in Finsbury Park for five years, with less oversight, and without any benefit for local residents – despite an incident prone resumption in 2022 and a petition of 2,406 local objectors – is stunning.”
The council said that working over the longer term with the event organisers will help enable it to develop further improvements that reduce the environmental impact of the events, and that all contractual and licensing controls will remain: “Should there be a major concern arising from an event then the council will be able to take strong action against any event organiser regardless of entering into agreements covering several years.”
The spokesperson said a large proportion of the income received each year from hosting events such as Wireless goes toward funding the expanded maintenance team in the park, and that while 75% of the team are agency workers, securing longterm income will give the council confidence to appoint to the roles on a permanent basis.
It is understood that no deal with Festival Republic has yet been secured by the council. The promoter has been contacted for comment.
Wireless Festival is scheduled to take place at Finsbury Park from 7-9 July with a line-up including Travis Scott, 50 Cent, Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti.