Dorset Evening Echo 27 December 2002.

Music enthusiasts blast council in public entertainment licences protest

Boycott threat to folk festival

By Matt Pitman matt.pitman@dorset.echo.co.uk

Music lovers are threatening to boycott a major festival in a row over entertainment licences.

Enthusiasts are set to stay away from next year's Weymouth Folk Festival because they are angry at rules which means a licence is needed for more than two people providing entertainment in pubs.

Local campaigners helped organise a national petition protesting about the rule and more than 10,000 people signed within a week.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?2inabar&1

And they have also bombarded Weymouth and Portland Borough Council with complaints that folk performers are being unfairly treated, and hit out at new proposals which they fear could mean making music in public a crime.

They claim that the council has rigidly implemented the rules and done nothing to support local campaigners' attempts to address the problems.

Many now say that intend to boycott next year's folk festival, due to be staged between May 9 and 11, where top folk names Oysterband and The Yetties are set to perform.

The row comes after The Wessex Morris Men were forced to stage their traditional Christmas mumming play in the streets of Cerne Abbas because West Dorset District Council officers insisted a licence was needed for them to perform inside.

Roger Gall from Portland, who has enjoyed folk music for more than 50 years and started the petition said:
"The situation in both Weymouth and Portland and West Dorset is crazy. People don't want these activities banned."

He added "I would have liked to have seen the folk festival go well, but many people's attitude is that the council only seem interested in folk music for two days because their attitude towards licensing is unsupportive for the rest of the year."

In a series of letters to the borough council folk music enthusiasts have said they will stay away from next year's event.

Mary Humpheys, from Ely in Cambridgeshire, said: "I would not consider coming to the festival and I am certain that many of my performing colleagues would also be of the same mind."

Peter Skinner, who has been a professional folk musician for 40 years , blasted the council, saying: "By not supporting these traditions and showing your support to ridiculous draconian measures you are abusing your position and only using folk music to make money."

Peter Cripps, an officer of England's Glory Ladies Morris, said they were considering staying away from the town's folk festival.

Tom Grainger, borough council chief executive, defended the authority's handling of the situation.

He said, "The folk festival was a great success last year and we hope people support the event next year. There's no suggestion that people's enjoyment of folk music will be spoilt by any unreasonable level of implementation over entertainment licences."

Tom Grainger
TomGrainger@weymouth.gov.uk

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