Councillors to debate if rave near Devizes can take place

The festival would take place near the village of Erlestoke

Councillors are to meet to decide if a dance music event which might attract 1,000 people can take place in a rural location.

The organisers of the Kaleidoscope Arts Festival want to hold the event near the Wiltshire village of Erlestoke in September.

The festival is being advertised as a celebration of dance music and rave culture.

On two of its nights, music would be played until 03:00 BST.

Wiltshire Council's Eastern Area licensing sub-committee will meet on 18 August in Trowbridge to discuss the application, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

If it goes ahead, the festival will be held from Thursday, 1 September to Monday, 5 September in a field off Lower Road near Erlestoke.

The event's website calls it: "an immersive three-day festival in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside, set to a soundtrack of pounding dance music and live performances" and promises up to 1,000 attendees.

In a statement to the licensing committee, organisers Kaleidoscopic Events, based in Yorkshire, said: "We have chosen this location because it is not near a town, is a distance from Coulston and Erlestoke - such that music will not inconvenience villagers or stop anyone from sleeping - and only has a few residents within 500 metres.

"All nearby residents are known to us personally or have been contacted and informed of the 'locals night' on Thursday 1 September, which begins the event on the first day of the premises licence, before standard festival entry on Friday 2nd September."

Concerns over traffic

Erlestoke Parish Council has not yet objected to the event, but has raised some concerns. 

It told the committee: "As far as the Parish Council is aware there has been no or certainly very limited consultation with the local residents of Erlestoke.

"While the application indicates that the number of attendees will be under 5,000, it is not clear how many attendees are expected or the planned limit of ticket sales."

The parish council also said it felt road access to the site might be inadequate and that the noise may inconvenience locals.