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UK: Cannabis festival to go ahead

South London Press

Friday 23 Apr 2004

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A CANNABIS festival is set to go ahead after an agreement was reached on
the cost of staging it.

Event organiser Shane Collins, who is Green Party London Assembly candidate
for Lambeth and Southwark, met Lambeth council on Monday.

The authority will charge Mr Collins a UKP7,000 letting fee plus a UKP5,000
deposit to hold the festival in Brockwell Park.

The event on May 8 will begin with a march from Kennington Park - about
5,000 people are expected to attend.

The council's licensing committee granted a music and dance licence for the
festival at its meeting on Tuesday.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Collins said: "Financially the event is on a
knife edge. If it rains we are stuffed.

"The cost has shot up. Last year it cost 52p per person. Now it is UKP1.40
per person. For a free event that is a huge increase.

"This year we have scaled down the event considerably and we have cut back
on the sound systems. We always leave the park cleaner than we find it."

A council spokeswoman said: "The usual commercial rate is UKP7,000. The
UKP5,000 deposit on top of that, in case there is any damage to the park,
is recoverable.

"We are assuming there will be a turnout of 5,000 people at UKP1.40 per
head but there will probably be more people than that.

"We can't give Mr Collins a reduced rate for community groups and charities
because he does not meet the criteria.

"We are anxious to stress it is nothing to do with the nature of the event.

"Cannabis is illegal but campaigning for it to be made legal is a person's
democratic right and we have no problem with people exercising that right."

What do you think about the cannabis festival going ahead?

Write to South London Press, 2-4 Leigham Court Road, Streatham, SW16 2PD or
email letters@slp.co.uk

 

 

 

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