As the curtain is about to come down on Field Day and Mighty Hoopla in Brockwell Park (1 to 3 June), we’d love your views on the weekend. How was it for you? Did you experience more or less disruption than anticipated? Would you say never again or happy to see the festival reappear next year? Were the noise levels OK or not so much? Have you seen damage to the park or nothing to report? Please tell us all your thoughts in the comments below and we will use them in our analysis of the weekend and its impact – at whatever level – on the park and the neighbourhood.
The Field Day in Brockwell Park was billed as a 3 day event running from 1-3 June. However, large sections of the park were actually full of vehicles and personnel connected to the festival for at least 2 weeks surrounding those 3 days. It took them over a week to dismantle the constructions they had placed in the park and take down the ugly wall partitioning off the area they used for their actual festival. It is such a relief to now once again be able to look out across the park and see trees and horizons rather than blockades. Graffiti on those blockades clearly indicated I was not the only one who felt this (eg. ‘Berlin Wall’, ‘they paved paradise, put up a parking lot’ etc.). The Field Day organisers have left in their wake sections of the park’s grass completely devastated. It will take quite some time for regrowth to occur and the park’s peace to return.
I would like to know if the profits the council made from the festival will be reinvested in infrastructure to properly rectify damage, employ a caretaker and properly maintain the park. For example, there is a terrible problem caused by drug use paraphernalia that urgently needs addressing. To my knowledge both dogs and at least one child have been injured by hypodermic needles. The only way to monitor and ensure safety is to have designated people to make sure park lands are kept clean and any toxic waste removed before further injury occurs.
The park is a public treasure and in my view denying the public access to large sections of their park and renting these out to those only interested in private profit is only justifiable if the disruption they cause is substantively outweighed by the benefits their money brings to the park and its true owners: the local community of people, animals and birds who treasure it.
The park fence was up for nearly 4 weeks. I run cycling courses for Lambeth. We use the Muga by the lido. Thus was fenced off do we could not access. We were mildly harassed by stewards who didn’t want us cycling around. Paths were narrowed so there were slow queues just to walk to between Herne hill and Rosendale gate…all vastly inconvenient. And don’t get me started on navigating a wheelchair. Yes Lambeth pay for a course then don’t provide a safe place for the children.