A festival at Gaunts House, Wimborne is to go ahead – despite being refused a Premises Licence.
The organisers of the Sounds Beautiful event, which will open on Thursday June 27 for four days, have obtained a Temporary Events Notice allowing, but limiting, drink sales and the number of people allowed on the site.
Dorset Police and Dorset Environmental Health said earlier in the month that they did not have full confidence in some aspects of the festival plans, but neither organisation has objected to the temporary permission, allowing it to go ahead.
At the time the Premises Licence was refused the festival organisers said they had sold 300 tickets with a similar number of artists and staff expected to be on the site.
At the licensing hearing in Dorchester the Sounds Beautiful team said that they had not been invited to a key safety meeting and had not been kept fully informed about the progress of their application – despite meeting all the requests for changes.
They were also unhappy that some items were delayed because staff dealing with their application only work part-time.
One of the organisers, Steve Norris, said that despite the initial problems he is delighted to see the issues resolved.
He said: “We are happy and excited that our Beautiful festival can take place.”
The festival is described as a four-day family event with live bands, DJs, speaker and comedy stage, workshops and kids’ area with a ‘healing field’ offering alternative therapies.
The Premises Licence initially requested asked for plays, films and live music up to 11pm with recorded music up until 2am on Friday and Saturday and until midnight on the opening day, Thursday, and final day on Sunday. Alcohol sales requested were to coincide with the performance hours.
The Temporary Events Notice which has been granted allows for fewer hours with alcohol sales stopping at 11pm.
The directors of the Ringwood-registered company behind the event, Wendy Morrow and Steve Norris, told the original licensing panel of councillors at County Hall, Dorchester that they had submitted all their documents in October last year – and had done their best to amend and update them as queries arose.
The team outlined plans for the event including details of security and stewards, paramedic cover, noise monitoring and securing an emergency vehicle route which they say will meet the most exacting standards.
“Everything is in place,” said Mr Norris.
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