A long-serving councillor has spoken out about the cancellation of Brighton Carnival, formerly known as the Kemp Town Carnival.
Labour councillor Alan Robins, who chairs Brighton and Hove City Council’s Culture, Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Economic Development Committee, said that officials made the decision with some reluctance.
Councillor Robins said: “We’re disappointed the carnival can’t go ahead. It was a tough call and not one we wanted to make.
“I know that our events team worked hard with the organisers but we have to be satisfied that any big event on the seafront satisfies the safety rules.
“I understand the organisers plan to go ahead with the carnival next year and this gives everyone plenty of time to learn from this year and get everything right.”
The carnival had been scheduled to take place on Saturday (10 June) but it was cancelled after the council withdrew permission.
The council said: “Sadly, we have needed to withdraw permission for Brighton Carnival to go ahead this weekend.
“Alongside partners, including the police and fire service, we work with organisers to ensure the safety of everyone attending all events that take place in the city.
“Unfortunately, after working with Brighton Carnival, public safety could not be assured. We know that people will be disappointed but public safety has to be paramount for the council when approving plans for all events to be held on council land.
“On this occasion, despite council attempts in the months leading up to the event to help the carnival organiser prepare, the papers just submitted were not of the standard required to ensure public safety.
“After careful consideration and discussion with partners, we felt we had no choice but to withdraw landlord’s consent for the carnival.
“We will continue working with the event organisers and hope to be able to welcome Brighton Carnival back as a safe event next year.”
Some of those involved in the decision-making have memories of the Big Beach Boutique 2 – a Fatboy Slim concert on Brighton beach in July 2002.
Two people died and more than 170 people were injured after an estimated 250,000 people turned up when about 60,000 had been expected.
The late Labour councillor Brian Fitch told a meeting afterwards that the council needed to ensure that it could hold big events that would be safe and successful, adding “We wouldn’t forgive ourselves if a tragedy occurred.”
At the weekend, Brighton Carnival organisers said: “It is with immeasurable sadness, disappointment, frustration and shock that we have to report that the licence for this year’s carnival was withdrawn by the council just before close of business yesterday (Friday 2 June).
“One of the most humbling aspects of volunteering for over a year on a free community music festival – the last, we believe, of its kind on the south coast – has been the huge amount of goodwill and love for the carnival itself.
“Over 400 volunteers were ready to give their time and energy, artist rehearsals had taken place, contractors were booked and time and financial outlay already sunk.
“It hurts us to know that some of you reading this will be among those who have lost out in this respect.
“This is of course in addition to the loss to the community of the event itself which, for us, was the start of this whole journey.
“We respect the decision of the events team at the council and the team themselves, who have expressed a desire to work with the carnival on a future event.
“It has been an absolute privilege to work with all involved and we could wish more success for the future of the carnival.
“Until yesterday (Friday) we truly believed that we were set to buck the sad trend of the closure of our local community volunteer-run festivals and are side-swiped by this decision.”
So no specific reasons …..
Fishy… was the security staff payment protection money not enough?
I would like to know some more specifics on which part of the documentation was not up to scratch. At the very least it should be used as an example for any future endeavours?
No great loss to see this event not happening. I’m sure the hippies of this city can go and bang their drums at some other event.
Interestingly the council have admitted in writing, that there were significant safety issues with last years On the Beach event, including danger to road users and the risk of collapse of railings on Marine Parade. They did not carry out an independent risk assessment but let the promoters do that themselves and this assessment is not available to residents…even under freedom of information. Despite the risks and many complaints from residents about noise, the council have extended the event from 4 days to 6. Perhaps the Kemptown carnival is just not worth bothering with…all those pleb residents and not enough profit for promoters (with the ‘perks’ that brings to the council events team).
Makes sense that an FOI request would be rejected; the organisers are not a public authority. Unfortunately, we may not publically know the reason for their rejection, so we are left with speculation. SAG for events has to be quite comprehensive, and this can be really difficult to put together, and if it’s not satisfied, it is right to withdraw the event.
However, on a positive note, these are not insurmountable challenges if this is the case, so I’m hopeful the organisers will be able to satisfy in their next event endeavour.
Sadly though, this is very poor practice that very few professional events teams would follow. The risk assessment should NEVER be carried out of the promotor themselves, and should anyone be injured by the railings on Marine Parade, then the council would be liable. We really need to get some experienced professionals into the Events Team.