Oscar winner's fight over festivals that turn park into ‘prison camp'

Times

22-04-2025

A row has broken out between local campaigners and a Labour council over the use of a park for music festivals.
Brockwell Park in Lambeth, south London, plays host to a festival season called Brockwell Live, including regular spectaculars such as the jazz event Cross the Tracks and the LGBTQ-friendly two-day event Mighty Hoopla.
Local campaigners have argued that the festivals cause long-term damage to the 125-acre park and its wildlife and have started a legal challenge to Lambeth council's decision to permit the festivals without planning permission.
Sir Mark Rylance, the Academy award-winning actor, who lives nearby, has called on the council to rethink its support of the festivals.
'Brockwell Park is a place for people and nature. It is essential to many people's mental health, to our joy, our healing grief,' he said. 'It was a gift to the local community and is held in trust for us by Lambeth. The imposition of high steel walls for Brockwell Live every summer destroys the park for weeks and harms the grass, trees and plant life for months — if not for ever. It turns it into a prison camp.
'I fully support this campaign to legally challenge our Lambeth governors and make a new arrangement for our park. Enough is enough. Stop the walls.'
Campaigners said that large swathes of the park were fenced off for weeks during the best of the spring and summer to make way for events and that the park — which is designated as a 'site of importance for nature conservation' — was being 'irreversibly harmed' by the effect of almost 300,000 attendees over sixteen days and the heavy goods vehicles involved in erecting the site.
After the festivals last year the grass turned into a muddy mess that took months to recover. A council report said that work on ground reinstallment was not completed until Novermber.
The group Protect Brockwell Park has initiated judicial review proceedings in the High Court to challenge Lambeth council's decision to allow Brockwell Live's commercial events to proceed under 'permitted development' rules.
The council charges the festival owner, Superstruct, itself owned by the private equity company KKR, for use of the park, but the council is not allowed to make a profit on the deal and only cover its costs because of the park being granted to it in trust.
Superstruct made a profit of £36.6 million in the past year for which financial records are available.
The park, which is located in Herne Hill, was originally part of the Brockwell Hall estate, centred around a grand mansion built in 1811 for John Blades, a wealthy glass merchant and magistrate. After passing through various private owners, the estate was purchased by London county council in 1891, ending up under the control of Lambeth council in 1986.
Rylance is only the latest celebrity to weigh in on the park's future. Adjoa Andoh, the Bridgerton star, said earlier this year in an Instagram post that 'our wildlife [and] ancient trees have been decimated, our residents without a free green space'.
'Shame on Lambeth council for not protecting it better,' she added.
Lambeth said it invested £500,000 a year in maintaining the park. In a statement, it said: 'Events run for a short period before summer and generate significant cultural opportunities and entertainment for younger people across the borough. Events also support businesses in the area, boosting our local economy and providing jobs and income for residents.
The council claimed that an independent assessment of the festival site indicated that there was 'no ecological damage caused'. 'However, income from events is helping us put money into diversity projects in other areas of the park, with at least £20,000 invested in this way last year,' it added.
The council said that while it does not make a profit from the arrangement, the programme of events helped to fund the free Lambeth Country Show festival, saving it £700,000 in operational costs last year, and secure more than £150,000 of investment in the park and community projects.
'We are committed to addressing all potential issues promptly and effectively, whilst ensuring Lambeth's residents continue to have access to a diverse and meaningful range of events,' it added.