Krankbrother events update March 2022
Application progress
The event application for the Krankbrother events in Beckenham Place Park next September is progressing well. The event organiser has been in regular communication with Lewisham Council Officers from various departments including licensing and conservation, the ESAG (Events Special Advisory Group) and Bromley officials.
Lewisham Council officers too are liaising with officers in Bromley Council’s Noise and Anti Social Behaviour department
The event organisers have been working to address issue raised by residents in 2021 including noise and ingress/egress – more on this below.
The communication process has included regular public meetings to listen to concerns, update and clarify as appropriate, as well as regular updates on the Krankbrother community website and updates such as this one you’re reading, which are published on the Beckenham Place Park website.
Planned improvements for 2022
Noise – A reduction of overall output, change in direction and orientation of stages, the reduction of low frequency through a self-imposed limit, a reduction in on-site audio and an increase in monitoring locations. More details here
Toilets – The exterior area will include hard poly-johns, urinal stations and
increased stewarding to prevent side streets from being used for urination.
Rubbish – A joint effort has been agreed with the council to provide 1100 units of
large bins in key areas and similar size bins outside the stations areas.
Pedestrian barrier - increased for stations and the route to the stations especially on
park exit.
Security and stewarding – Increased by approximately 15% across all key external
areas.
Notices and signs - Erected on-site at an earlier date.
Resident letter - A wider distribution of the resident letter which was increased to 20k addresses
Conservation
In association with Lewisham Council’s Ecological Regeneration Manager and Lockhart Garrett, Krankbrother have commissioned an ecology report to negate ecological disturbance
License application
Krankbrother is submitting an application to expand the maximum capacity of the event from 8,000 to 12,000. You can see the application here and notices in the park.
The increase in capacity will allow Krankbrother to continue to deliver well organised, safe events and to bring high-quality content to the park in a sustainable way. Importantly, this increase does not correlate with an increase in footprint. Krankbrother has pledged any increase in capacity to follow three principles. Krankbrother and Event Safety Management, have reassured the Council and residents that:
The noise levels will NOT increase in any way courtesy of the capacity increase.
The site perimeter will NOT change in any way courtesy of the site increase. The site occupation days will also NOT increase this will allow us to continue our events in a financially sustainable way and bring higher-profile content to the park.
The associated staffing and infrastructure will increase accordingly to manage the new capacity, including enhanced measures to minimise any potential disruption to the local area.
Music events in Beckenham Place Park
The Krankbrother events in September are the only larger-scale music events in the park this year.
The 2022 programme is similar to last year, with two extra free cultural events courtesy of Lewisham London Borough of Culture 2022.
The Beckenham Place Park approach is to consolidate and improve on what has been achieved in the three years since the park was renovated. Whilst the music festival contributes important revenue for the upkeep of the park, the wider programme is varied with smaller-scale events the rest of the year.
In 2021, the events were due to take place in July and in September. The uncertainty and disruption caused by Covid-19 resulted in both weekends being pushed to later in the year, as did many other events up and down the country for the same reason.
Having looked at last year’s performance, both Lewisham Council and Krankbrother have agreed that, on balance, the best for both parties, the park and its community is to have those two weekends in September. Whilst this contributes, as mentioned above, to the organiser’s, as well as the park’s own, sustainability, it has other advantages including:
· A reduction in set up and take downtime in the number of days and weeks, which means that the park is free of larger events and its infrastructure for most of the year
· Only one set up and take down contributes less traffic and fewer carbon emissions than if it was to happen twice, in separate months
· Economies of scale – by having council officer time focused on what is effectively one event (two consecutive weekends), staff can deliver better value for the local community
· Clear grounds to enjoy fully for most of the Summer, which is a naturally busy period for parks
Consultation
The organisers have been consulting with the community regularly since October 2021.
This has included three large door drops, with letters now distributed to 20,000 households in the immediate vicinity of the park. These communications have now moved to email.
If you wish to receive regular updates about the events as a local resident please email community@krankbrotherbppevents.com stating your name and address. This list is managed by Krankbrother to update local residents on the events’ progress. Address information will not be shared, but it is useful for Krankbrother in understanding where local residents live with the aim of reducing local disturbance.
You can contact community@krankbrotherbppevents.com at any time.
As mentioned above there is also a community website for Krankbrother events {link} and the BPP website itself posts regular updates on progress.