Decision due to be made on Margate sands Beach Mania festival

Margate Main Sands

A licensing application for a two-day music festival – with a 20ft bar – on Margate Main Sands this Summer  will be heard on Tuesday (June 5).

The application was adjourned last month because new documents were submitted.

The festival is planned for the bank holiday from August 25-27 although it states the event timings are Saturday and Sunday (August 25-26) from noon to 9pm each day with the first day to set up.

Events company Happy Days Parties want to use part of the main sands, which will be fenced off and contain a stage for live music and dance performances. There will also be recorded music.

Beach Mania

The Beach Mania Festival will feature garage and house classics on the first day and carnival tunes, soul, Afrobeats, R&B and Soca on the second day.

In the latest application the Happy days applicants say the organisation “promoted dance music events all over the UK between 1989-2003.

“The organisation then went on to open its own club in Shoreditch in 1994 called Aquarium and then Propaganda in Soho.

“The organisation is responsible for the birth of UK garage and some of the UK’s garage pioneer DJs and record producers.”

Outlining their plans they say there will be performances from national and international DJs. They predict ages ranging from 18-60 with the average age being 40. In the application they add: “They are expected to be lively but will not engage in moshing/crowd surfing and will be reasonably responsive to instruction of stewards/DJs etc.”

The ticketed event is expected to have a crowd of just under 2,000. Organisers say they have made security and safety arrangements.

Conditions

Kent Police has not objected to the application for the over-18s event but says there are conditions that would need to be put in place – including an age limit of 25 and over.

The response from Chief Inspector Sharon Adley says: “I have to note that the bar is 20 metres longs which is a significant size to say the least.

“Such a large bar would need security on its own rather than the entry/exit marshalls.

Suggested conditions would include no glass bottles, toughened glass/plastic containers for alcohol, at least 4 door supervisors with 2 being female, a Challenge 25 scheme in operation, a lockable drugs box to be on the site and the use of CCTV. The list of conditions also say those under 25 not to be allowed on the premises.

Councillors on the licensing committee will discuss the application at a meeting on Tuesday (June 5) at 10am.