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Festival Republic secures deal to stage Wireless in London’s Finsbury Park through to 2027
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 27 June 2023
London’s Haringey Council has granted permission for the Wireless festival to take place in Finsbury Park each year through to 2027, despite opposition from some local community groups. Previously the event’s promoter, Live Nation’s Festival Republic, had to secure permission to use the North London park on an annual basis.
There has been plenty of criticism of Wireless by local residents since it relocated to Finsbury Park back in 2014, in particular in relation to noise levels.
After COVID forced the cancellation of the festival’s 2020 edition, it returned in 2021 in South London’s Crystal Palace Park. However, last year both Crystal Palace Park and Finsbury Park were used on different weekends. And this year there is just one edition of Wireless back in Finsbury Park.
Obviously, any festival promoter would prefer a multi-year arrangement with the owners of the sites that they use and the local authorities that issue the licences required to stage their events. And – in the case of Finsbury Park – Haringey Council is both landlord and licensor.
Such arrangements remove the costs and hassle of having to secure permission on an annual basis, and allow promoters to invest in their production set-up knowing that they can benefit from any investments over a number of years.
And, bosses at Haringey Council insist, it too benefits from having a longer term arrangement. Even though, reports suggest, the council will actually make less each year from Wireless under the new deal – which presumably has some sort of bulk buy discount built into it – knowing that that income is guaranteed every year for five years still has big benefits for the local authority.
Council bosses say that by allowing events like Wireless to be staged in Finsbury Park, about £1.2 million of income is generated annually which “funds the maintenance team and pays for improvements such as a new play space, air-quality monitoring stations and an expanded skate park”.
The new five year deal actually goes beyond Wireless. As part of the agreement, Festival Republic will also be allowed to hold a second weekend of major events in the park each year, plus there will be two days of free community events presented.
Commenting on the new deal with Festival Republic, Council leader Peray Ahmet told the BBC: “As well as bringing in significant funds to help us manage and improve the park, events are an important opportunity for residents, especially our young people, to access world-class music and culture in an affordable and sustainable way”.
However, community group Friends Of Finsbury Park – which has regularly spoken out against Wireless being staged on the North London site – was unsurprisingly critical of the five year arrangement, adding that it was “incredibly disappointed” that Haringey Council had not held a “promised [public] consultation on the proposal”.
The Haringey Community Press quotes the group as saying: “As the cabinet papers make clear, this is about money, not culture. Evidently, council budgets are tight. But elsewhere in the borough, Haringey Council is making great investments in parks. And perversely, this deal appears to deliver less money for Finsbury Park!”
“Further, purported investments are all focused on major events infrastructure – including a proposal for a substation in the park”, they went on. “We don’t think the council has seriously looked at other options for funding the park properly or explored options to partner with other local councils”.
