Save the Music Festivals at Bredy Farm

This is a desperate plea for help, for the sake of not only our livelihoods and our passion, but for the young local people we employ, the musicians we support, the enjoyment of a hundreds to thousands of our loyal supporters, what they bring to the local economy, and the fear of Burton Bradstock being allowed to become truly Jurassic by nature.

An abatement notice has been served based solely on a number of complaints that were sent in to Environmental Health after the event had taken place, which runs the risk of stopping any future events from taking place at Bredy Farm.

We have worked incredibly hard throughout the years to make the events here at Bredy Farm a success. Although not our sole professions (Charlie runs the day to day jobs on the farm and Abi is a veterinary surgeon) we have put our hearts, minds, lives and souls into them to make them incredibly special for everyone and anyone who attends, whether it be their first ever "music festival", or they are a lifelong festival goer, and as result we have all of you wonderful, friendly and loyal supporters to show for it.

Each year we donate to a good cause, last year we gave £1000 to the local primary school which enabled them to enrich the children's lives with a day long African Drumming workshop - the money also made their theatre production at a local venue possible. This year we were hoping to donate a similar sum of money towards helping the homeless in the local area, either through shelters, food sources or clothing banks.

The family friendly weekend music events that we hold occur on 9 days out of 365 days of the year and the live music starts at midday and finishes at 11:45pm, with background music at the bar until 2am.

We are a 500 person family friendly festival and we are considered to be a statutory nuisance. When you compare us to the likes Glastonbury, Bestival, Boomtown, Reading Festival, etc. who are not only a considerable deal larger than us, but also play music until the early hours of the morning (ours finishes at 11:45pm), you wonder how this could be possible?

Despite having statements from several residents explaining that the music could not be heard within their houses or after the hours that our licensing ended as well as a history of the village petitioning and campaigning to get any novel enterprises that bring life to the village shut down, environmental health have, for one reason or another, without justification, bowed to their actions.

The village are renowned for not accepting change and we believe the reason there was such a barrage of complaints that came in specifically for Bredy Farm after the event had taken place is because the main complainants had sent letters to residents to complain about the "noise coming from events at Bredy Farm", rather than encouraging people to complain about the "noise over the weekend", which should have initiated an investigation as to where the noise was coming from rather than immediately serving us an abatement notice. The key leaders of the campaign to get the events shut down coincidentally own neighbouring holiday letting and campsite businesses within the village.

The Environmental Health Officer managing the case, did not witness the apparent "nuisance" nor investigate whether any other events were being held on the same weekend. There were, in fact, several other parties being held on the same weekend one within the heart of the village, and another being held to the East of us for an 80th birthday party, which involved "very loud music until the early hours of the morning".

Despite the previous two events, where there has been factual audio recordings to show we are not causing a statutory nuisance, and the continued close work with Environmental Health to jump through hoops to try to reduce any sound travelling from the events, we have been issued with an abatement notice following on from a barrage of complaints all coincidentally directed at Bredy Farm. But, how did the people KNOW that the noise was coming directly from us? Letters were distributed by certain companies within the village to their residents encouraging them to complain directly to EHO about Bredy Farm events.

Please do have a look at what we do:

Camping Be Cider Seaside - May event 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5FRO_M-tAA

SouthCider Festival - June event 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_79YUEgAYik

Despite working closely with environmental health and improving the noise at each event, we are now having to expend an enormous amount of time and money to try to appeal the unnecessary abatement notices, which also run the risk of stopping any future events taking place.

Spread the word and thank you for taking the time to listen to us, we really appreciate your support! If you can help us in anyway, please do get in touch.