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Local councillors and MP express concerns about impact of Wireless festival

By | Published on Thursday 16 August 2018

Wireless Festival

Concerns have been expressed by local officials and the local MP in the London borough of Islington over the impact Live Nation’s Wireless festival has on the area.

Wireless – and a number of other Live Nation events – take place in London’s Finsbury Park. The park itself is in the borough of Haringey, but it’s also right on the boundaries of neighbouring boroughs Hackney and Islington.

According to the Islington Gazette, Islington Council has put together a report on this year’s Wireless festival in which it raises a number of concerns and supports calls by an organisation called Friends Of Finsbury Park for a review of Live Nation’s licence.

Among the gripes contained in the report are issues over noise, traffic, parking, street cleaning and anti-social behaviour. The council also says that signage encouraged attendees to walk home via Islington – rather than Hackney or Haringey – but that no stewarding was in place on its side of the park to police the resulting flow of people.

The council’s report comes after the local MP – a certain Jeremy Corbyn – wrote to the leader of Haringey Council expressing concerns about the number of music events now being staged in Finsbury Park. He wrote: “The events result in the local community having limited access to the park for a considerable amount of weeks each year”.

He added that “the area of the park cordoned off with huge barriers and the use of hard surface and road for the parking of very large heavy vehicles seem to be increasing each year”, before musing that it’s “obvious organisers were not sufficiently prepared for it or its effects on the local community”, resulting in some locals feeling their homes “literally vibrating”.



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