FOR the first time, Matterley Estate near Winchester will host two music festivals this summer.

It will include a new event in June entitled Golden Down, where 5,000 revellers are expected.

Double that amount will be flocking to the return of Boomtown Fair in August.

The site between the A31 and A272 has hosted music and motocross events for more than a decade.

However, it has never held two music festivals with revellers camping overnight in the same year.

Concerns were raised by Itchen Valley Parish Council when the venue was first brought into use.

Penny Flemons, who chairs the council, said the organisation of events was now much improved.

She said some residents were still affected by noise, depending on the wind direction during festivals.

Yet the problems, which had also included traffic and parking, had reduced in recent years, she said.

“The organisers of these festivals have become much better at talking to us and asking what our concerns are.

“We’ve found that constructive, and I think the most important thing is to keep talking,” she said.

However, she added that if more events were held, residents might feel that it was going too far.

She said: “I’d like to think that they know what’s reasonable, such as just having a couple of events, or maybe some motocross, but anything more would be unreasonable and we would have saturation.”

Winchester City Council has dealt with several applications to licence events at the site in the past decade.

It led to a deal with civic chiefs where the landowner, Peveril Bruce, can host six events annually of up to 30,000 people.

He has never used the full quota and the local authority must be told 120 days in advance of such events.

A council spokeswoman said notice had been given for Golden Down and Boomtown Fair.

The authority has not been notified about any other events at this time, she added.

Golden Down will take place from Friday, June 15 to Sunday, June 17.

Organisers initially planned to hold it on the outskirts of Dartmouth in Devon.

However, the farm they wanted to use had no licence, unlike the Matterley Estate.

The festival will take place on a different part of the estate to previous events. Instead of using Matterley Bowl, Golden Down will be in Black Bush Valley, one mile further east.

The bowl will host Boomtown Fair from Thursday, August 9 to Sunday, August 12.

A statement from the organisers said: “The ‘town walls’ have expanded dramatically for 2012, giving us almost double the space of 2011, yet the population is only enlarging a fraction to accommodate the new streets and stages.”

Acts confirmed include Dub Pistols, Sonic Boom 6, Shy FX, Asian Dub Foundation and Reel Big Fish.

Golden Down is expected to reveal its line up of DJs and bands within the next few days.

The Matterley Estate first hosted live music in the late 1990s with the Creamfields dance festival.

It was followed by the Homelands, Hi:Fi, Sanctuary and Glade festivals before Boomtown Fair arrived last year.

The site also hosted a one-off concert by JLS last year, which led to traffic chaos and ticket holders demanding refunds.

It has also been used for the British Motocross Grand Prix and Motocross of Nations.