WINCHESTER City Council has confirmed an increase in the number of noise complaints at this year’s Boomtown Fair.

The festival, which ran at the Matterley Bowl over five days from Wednesday, August 9, saw thousands of visitors descend on the site.

Civic chiefs said that they had a team of council officers working alongside the organisers to ensure that disruption was kept to a minimum.

However, a council spokesperson confirmed it received 29 noise complaints over the weekend, almost three times as many as in 2022 where 10 complaints in total were reported.

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The spokesperson said: “The event itself has a premises licence which has conditions relating to the control of noise, outlining levels that noise should not exceed – this is measured from predetermined locations surrounding the Matterley estate. These locations are then monitored throughout the event by the organiser’s dedicated noise management company.

“Independently, a team of officers from the council also monitor noise levels at the locations during the night, to ensure that noise does not exceed the accepted level. Where they are exceeded, immediate action is taken to ensure noise levels are brought back to accepted levels.

“The regulations as part of the licence conditions, do not expect noise to be inaudible, but at an acceptable level. Weather conditions can also divert or escalate sound, carrying sound to areas where it wouldn’t usually be heard. In total, over the festival weekend, the city council received 29 noise complaints – in these circumstances, officers visited the nearest monitoring locations to assess whether the licence conditions were being achieved. Where possible, officers have also visited residents to consider if the monitoring locations need to be changed in the future.”

The South Downs National Park Authority also said that it had received three further noise complaints.

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A Boomtown spokesperson said: “We understand some of the challenges that can come alongside living close to a large festival, and we work year-round with the local community to help us put in place anything that would minimise this disruption.

As part of our noise management plan, when a complaint is made to Boomtown about noise levels, a sound control consultant is deployed within 30 minutes to take a measurement. We have fixed monitoring positions in the local area where off-site noise levels are measured for the duration of the event to ensure compliance.

"We hold regular meetings throughout the year for local residents to feed into the planning process for important strategies like traffic and noise. We will continue to work with the local community to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.”