Is Brockwell Park going to host Lovebox 2018 and Field Day 2018?

Is Brockwell Park going to host Field Day 2018 and Lovebox 2018?

Against a backdrop of growing complaints from locals about the damage caused by big music festivals to Brockwell Park, rumours are flying that Lovebox 2018 and perhaps Field Day 2018 will be taking place in the park.

Brockwell Park as a festival venue - debate rages amongst locals

The case for Lovebox is quite persuasive: Brixton Buzz has seen documents that reveal that the organisers have been talking to Lambeth about hosting their festival in the park, and some of these plans are at an advanced stage. That said, nothing appears to have been confirmed yet.

Another contact has been in contact to say that the Field Day festival is also in talks with Lambeth to host their festival in Brockwell Park, but here the rumours seem a lot fuzzier, with reports that some people living near Finsbury Park have been sent letters by the council saying it’s going to take place there instead.

Recent Field Day festivals in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, have attracted sold-out crowds of 20,000, while Lovebox’s events in the same location have pulled in even bigger crowds of 50,000 people.

Field Day recently announced on their website that the event will be moving to a new location, while Lovebox have no information about the location of next year’s festival.

Review: Sunfall at Brockwell Park, south London - a festival of queues, Saturday 12th August 2017

[Sunfall Festival 2017 queues in Brockwell Park]

What do you think?

Do you think that these commercial festivals are good news for Lambeth, or do you think that the park shouldn’t be used this much for major festivals? Or do you think that there should be no private, ticketed events in a public park? Add your comments below!

And if you have any inside knowledge about where these festivals will be taking place, please drop us a line.

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7 Comments on “Is Brockwell Park going to host Lovebox 2018 and Field Day 2018?”

  1. I suppose this is the inevitable result of “pictures or it didn’t happen”, which is itself an inevitable result of social media becoming pervasive – there will just be more and more events where people see and are seen.

    I grew up in a part of Scotland which nobody visited unless they had to and had no events whatsoever. Now even it is developing somewhat contrived tourist attractions and holding festivals, although the local council has the sense to run the second in a football stadium; Lambeth lacks big built venues so parks are used as a(n inadequate) fallback.

    The answer is surely that private, ticketed events are absurd and wasteful where their infrastructure, including a wall round them which would be better provided by a permanent construction, must be built up from nothing then torn down a few days later for every event – but are too lucrative and attract too many eyeballs to go elsewhere.

    (And they also attract the suspicion, which inevitably occurs in tourist areas, that things are run for the benefit of the visitors rather than those who live there).

  2. Good points made by Alastair. Brockwell Park is a public park for the unencumbered use by residents of Lambeth and beyond. Private, ticketed events obstruct public access to the Park through huge and expansive security fencing and leaves the Park’s grounds suffering for a long while after the event. The Park already has a permanent construction – the Mansion House, most of which is not currently accessible – and it could be redeveloped to host regular corporate events that would drive revenue into the authority’s coffers, while providing minimal disruption to park users e.g. if the events were held safely in the evenings after park’s official closing hours. This should be explored further.

  3. After the last festival back in August the park is still not back to how it was before the event was held. Where the park bench was ripped the foundations have been repaired but the chair is still missing. The three large areas of destroyed grass are still cordoned off to give the newly sown grass time to grow. The paths remain cracked from the HGV’s especially the one from and to the Herne Hill entrance. The park cannot cope with these large events and amount of people without suffering damage and then there is the high metal fence which goes up and down more than once in a year. Last time it was up for 10 days to secure off part of the park for an event that lasted 8 hours. That doesn’t even take into account the crowd control and the fiasco surrounding that during the last festival in August.

    1. The council get paid rent for hosting events. They have a plan in place to repair the grass after events. It isn’t the fault of event organisers if the council pocket the money and do none of the repairs.
      Events in Brockwell add to my use of the park – they just need to be managed correctly.

  4. Hello from a Victoria Park (ex home of Lovebox) user.
    Lovebox and Field day have plus and negative points, They do bring in money to the park and can be an attraction for people to visit but in recent years a number of factors have not helped Lovebox etc and Victoria park live well together.
    The planning of the events and the weather made a huge mess of the grass and this had to be cordoned off for a much longer period than planned.
    The vehicles, construction and de rig were problematic in a public area.
    The noise was an issue for people depending on which way the wind was blowing the sound
    The public exiting the space and the management of that was the biggest issue for residents.
    Parking, Rubbish and public using everywhere as a toilet despite all the usual soundbites from organisers and council really upset the locals.
    Saying that, residents were offered free tickets and reductions BUT this was only for those close to the park and the nuisance was covering a much further distance.

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