Plans For This Summer's Beer Festival In Chiswick Proceeding

The Bedford Park Society will meet the organiser to discuss their concerns

The Bedford Park Society is to meet the organiser of this summer's Bierfest on Acton Common, to discuss its concerns about the August festival. Formerly known as the Oktoberfest, it will be held from 24-28 August 2017 and will have a more 'family friendly' format this year.

The BPS provided the only local representation, apart form Ward Councillor Andrew Steed, at last month’s meeting with Ealing Council and the event organiser, organised to discuss the details of the 2017 Bierfest .

Although Ealing Council said that they had notified residents living in the vicinity of Acton Green of the meeting details, no residents attended on the night.

The Council has given conditional permission for the Bierfest to take place, provided the organisers meet all the requirements stipulated by the Council including monitoring of noise levels, numbers and arrangements for entering and existing the event. If they fail to comply, permission can be withdrawn at any time.

At the meeting, the plans were outlined for this year’s event, which is being run by the same organisation as last year (London Oktoberfest). It has been re-branded as the German Bierfest Ealing.

The format will be slightly different this year. The site will be in the same place and the same size as last year but the tent will be smaller (max capacity 300 people). The main public area will be an outside beer garden to the south of the tent. Attendance will be limited to 1,500 people at any one time. Security guards at the gate will control access and conduct bag searches. There will be no live music and no roaming performers. A DJ will be on the stage in the tent with music broadcast only through loudspeakers in the tent. Music will also be played over loudspeakers in the beer garden, but this is described as being at 'background' level.

The Society has asked the Council for details of the conditions imposed for granting permission for the event including how compliance will be checked; what steps will be taken if non-compliance occurs during the event; how many people attended last year and whether the 1,500 maximum attendance was reached at any point.

The BPS said; "We are also seeking confirmation that the closing times of 23:00 each evening except Sunday (19:30) outlined at the meeting since these times do not correspond with those shown on the website. We have not yet received a response to our questions."

The public meeting is on Tuesday, 1 August from 19:00 – 20:00 on Acton Green (adjacent to St Michael's & All Angels church). This meeting will consist of a Q&A session with the event organiser and a site walkabout.

Mr. Raun had said last year he hoped it would become an annual event.

July 11, 2017