HUNDREDS of festival goers could descend on Bracknell if an application to host a three-day event on land off Old Wokingham Road is granted permission.

A Temporary Event Notice has been submitted to Bracknell Forest Council to hold a three-day 'Varkala Festival' at Park View Farm with plans to blast music from the site until 2am over the weekend of August 12 to 14. 

An application for a licence to hold the event was submitted on Tuesday last week (June 21) which states the festival will include four temporary structures, food stalls, souvenir shops and bars. 

However Bracknell Forest Council's environmental health department have objected to the application claiming the excessive noise levels would be a "public nuisance".

In their objection to the application the department's team manager Gail Siddall said: "I believe it will undermine the licensing objective of prevention of public nuisance.

"The reasons for this are that the event is to take place over a three day period on a site that is relatively close to residential accommodation. When a similar event took place in 2012 there were numerous complaints from the surrounding area."

"The event organiser has given extra information which states that the noise level will be held at 98 decibels which considering the area of the site the noise level will considerably exceed the background noise level at 2am, there is no mention of how the noise will be controlled if the levels were exceeded and also from the attendees who are camping on the site."

She added that the site is open for public events but that this has been mostly weddings who have been bound to limit noise from the site from 1am.
The events organiser is listed as Jamie Bowlett who replied that residents living nearby would be given complimentary foam ear plugs in order to mitigate the noise from the site. 

Responding to Ms Siddall, Mr Bowlett said: "There will be two sound systems over the weekend, both of these systems are capable of reaching more than 120 decibels however we will be playing them at 98 decibels. If you look at the site map, you'll see one of the stages system is pointing toward the forest area, this is done intentionally so that the travelling sound will be dampened by the forest. The second stage's system is pointed toward a much smaller group of trees, we intend on stacking large hay bales to the western side of this group of trees in an attempt to, again, dampen the travelling sound."

The News has been unable to reach festival organisers directly for comment, but found another Varkala Festival planned on August 5 to 8 2016 in Theydon Bois, Essex described as a "boutique, greenfield weekend festival, combining sunbaked, soulful sounds and contemporary dance music".

A decision on the application will be made by a Licensing Panel this Wednesday, July 6.