Mint Festival plots 2023 comeback at Newsam Green Farm in Leeds - but not all the neighbours are happy about it

Mint Festival is scheduled for September 23, 2023 at Newsam Green Farm after being called off this year. A licensing hearing scheduled for January will determine whether the event can take place.

Organisers have asked Leeds City Council for a licence for two days, even though the event has only been advertised for one on the Mint Festival website. But four neighbours have objected in writing to the festival’s return, with some citing problems about the previous event at the farm in 2021.

One said: “The last time an event was held here at Newsam Green Farm I could hear the music as if it were in my own garden, it was so loud. There was a mass of drug paraphernalia leading up to the event from Woodlesford Railway Station which is a very unpleasant sight for anyone to have to see and it could quite easily have caused a danger to pedestrians.”

Another wrote: “This event is not for the benefit of the local community. It is geared up purely for commercial gain by the promoters. It has nothing whatsoever to do with it being a cultural event or indeed promoting Leeds as a city of culture.

“Furthermore, this will be another year residents in the area living around the site will have to put up with all the noise generated by these people if this application is approved.”

The applicant – Mint Festival Ltd – has asked for up to 7,500 guests to be allowed at the event, rising to 9,999 in future years. In a detailed application form, it outlined extensive measures to guarantee public safety, stop crime and disorder and limit noise.

The form said: “A suitable closed-circuit television (CCTV) system will be always in operation whilst members of the public are in attendance. The licence holder shall have an event specific noise management plan taking into account all sources of noise associated with the event, and show full compliance with the Code of Practice on Environmental Noise Control at concerts.

“The premises licence holder shall provide and advertise a nuisance complaints line and have a system for responding to complaints throughout the duration of each event.”

Organisers have also promised to search all festival-goers on entry and to ensure litter is picked up during and after the event.

The company was contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service for further comment, but did not respond.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the festival has been held at RAF Church Fenton within the Selby district, though it was held at The Tetley on Hunslet Road in Leeds in 2016.