Licensees in Lewes campaign over music festival re-admittance policy

Tony Leonard, who the runs the Snowdrop Inn, and Viv English, licensee at the Landsdown Arms, made the appeal to the promoters of the Gentlemen of the Road Stopover festival, which will be held in the East Sussex town on 19-20 July.

The festival, which is expected to attract 25,000 people across the weekend, is the brainchild of folk rock band Mumford & Sons, who will be headlining on both days.

While stressing that the festival is potentially a great event for the town, Leonard believed pubs would suffer a loss of trade if festival goers aren’t allowed to leave the Convent Field site at any time once they are admitted.

He argued: “If the festival is meant to be a celebration of Lewes and local business, then people really ought to be given the option of exploring the town during the day, and not just after midnight when everything’s closed.”

Leonard believed organiser Gentlemen of the Road is encouraging pubs in the town to get Temporary Event Notices (TENs) until 2am. “They are trying to engage with the town, but we don’t really have a late-night economy in Lewes – so that’s not the best time for people to visit pubs.”

Meanwhile, Viv English met up with Lewes District Council last week (14 May) to address the concerns of local businesses. She claimed that a “positive dialogue” had taken place and was hopeful that a compromise can be found.

Gentlemen of the Road has already said it would accept refunds from all ticket holders who no longer wish to attend the festival. The promoter added, however, that allowing everybody to come and go would cause bottlenecks at the entrance points and could put “unnecessary pressure” on the town’s local resources.

But according to Leonard, the town is more than able to cope with the influx of people. “Every year, around 60,000 people come to Lewes for the biggest bonfire celebrations in Europe, so we’re completely used to big crowds and the associated health and safety issues.”