Music festivals are “ruining” the £12 million restoration of a Victorian London park, it was claimed today.
Only a few months after Tower Hamlets council completed the works in Victoria Park using Lottery money, large areas of grass have been destroyed by festival lorries.
The park is the location for the BT Olympic site and several commercial events are planned this summer. There are fears that huge swathes of the 212-acre park will be unusable for local families well into next year.
Lana Del Rey, Rita Ora, Hot Chip and Grace Jones are due to appear at the Lovebox festival starting today.
Tower Hamlets council, run by independent mayor Lutfur Rahman, earns about £100,000 a year from renting out the park. But there are concerns it costs more to fix the damage.
The £12 million works included a playground, a Chinese pagoda on the lake and new flower displays.
A group of opposition Labour councillors visited after the Jubilee weekend’s Field Day and Apple Cart festivals.
Labour group leader Joshua Peck said: “There was quite considerable damage ... grass was ripped up and deep furrows gouged by the lorries, which had driven off the special vehicle tracks.
"Even though these promoters have a bond they forfeit, the grass will take months to get back into those areas. By the end of the summer you’re going to find the majority of the park turned into quagmire.
“No one objects to the park being used for some commercial events but they are just using it as a cash cow. There will be another 75,000 every day in the park during the Olympics, which I’m worried will put it out of use into the winter.”
Critics fear the problems will be made worse by an art project, in which 10 cars have been transformed by graffiti artists which are being towed to the park for Lovebox.
Organisers of the Field Day and Apple Cart festivals said they “made every effort to protect the park environment” but heavy rain meant “unavoidable ground damage occurred”.
Labour wants the nine festivals scheduled this year cut to six. Tower Hamlets council said festivals were in fenced-off areas, leaving 80 per cent of the park free.
