Councils in legal fight over ‘hippy crack’ Clapham festival

Bank holiday gig: the SW4 Festival

Two London councils are at loggerheads over a dance festival locals complain will ruin their bank holiday with three days of “thumping bass music”.

The SW4 Festival attracts a stellar line-up of Europe’s best dance and electro DJs each year, and is set to take place on Clapham Common across the August bank holiday weekend.

Last year’s festival was dogged by complaints of excessively loud music, while previously locals complained of late-night disruption by revellers and alleged open drug-taking.

Lambeth council, which manages the common, has backed this year’s three-day event, but faces opposition from neighbouring Wandsworth council, which wants the festival cut to two days and a lowered cap on sound levels.

Wandsworth claims last year’s event, the first to run all three days over bank holiday, led to “unreasonable disturbance”, and is going to court to try to ensure at least one day of the weekend will be peaceful for local residents.

Councillor Jonathan Cook, Wandsworth’s environment spokesman, said complaints had rocketed sixfold last year and Lambeth had left it no option but to pursue the dispute in the courts.

“We are not objecting to the event being staged: our challenge relates only to the way it is being managed,” he said. “A sixfold increase in complaints is a clear indication these new arrangements are causing unreasonable disturbance to people living nearby.”

Each day of the festival, which attracts up to 30,000 people, starts lunchtime and runs until 11pm, and Mr Cook said locals have to endure “loud, constant, thumping bass music”.

In 2015, the festival hit the headlines when revellers were seen taking “hippy crack” — nitrous oxide. There were also complaints of festival-goers vomiting and urinating in public and collapsing on the roadside.

A Lambeth council spokesman said: “Legally we are unable to comment on this specific issue but all events go through a rigorous process involving police, health and other partners, including neighbouring boroughs.”

The dispute is due to be heard at Camberwell Green magistrates’ court in the next few weeks.

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