100 signatures reached
To: Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd, TinyCow, Liverpool City Council
Calling for an independent inquiry into the Hope & Glory Festival fiasco
We want an independent inquiry into Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd, TinyCow and Liverpool City Council as the festival put peoples lives in immediate danger.
The festival was dangerous and not fit to be opened on the Saturday.
We believe the council led inquiry will not look deep enough into all the parties concerned in allowing the festival to take place. So we believe it needs to be an independent inquiry to make this fair and just.
Why is this important?
The Hope & Glory Festival was supposed to be the jewel in Liverpool's strong music scene crown.
However it was a fiasco from the word go.
The site was unfinished, it was positioned in such an area that the entire site population was forced to move between a narrow gateway in which people were crushed trying to move about the site. The bands ran late, with some cancelled. Their sets were cut to the point the main act could only perform 8 songs. The stages were unfinished with electrical problems. Speakers had not been secured causing one band member to almost fall into the crowd.
The toilets were overflowing by 4pm with no procedure in place to empty them. This presented a health hazard as urine was running down towards the second stage area where people with young children were watching bands.
People with tickets were turned away due to overcrowding and now cannot obtain refunds as the organiser is refusing any contact from anyone or to release information to the ticket agencies. We believe that this was due to a failure in being able to accurately record the numbers of people present on the day.
People were being carried out suffering "crush like symptoms". The number of people approved was set at 15,000 people initially, but this was reduced to 12,500. Then it was to be further reduced on the Sunday to 10,000 had it gone ahead due to the overcrowding.
The entire site and infrastructure was in such a state that the second day of the festival was cancelled due to health and safety concerns.
The council want to have their own inquiry into why it was such a disgrace. However as the council itself was involved in approving the plans and approving the number of people allowed we don't believe they will be looking into their own involvement and taking the responsibility necessary for their own actions.
So we are calling for an independent inquiry to look into all parties concerned, and to find out why the festival was put in the hands of an underqualified and inexperienced organiser, who as a direct result of his actions put lives in danger.
How it will be delivered
We would like to be able to hand this petition to Liverpool City Council and Mayor Joe Anderson personally, so they can see we are acting in the interests of the public present on the day.
