Events for 5,000 people at stately home will be 'like squeezing our entire population onto one field'

A HISTORIC Derbyshire stately home can now host music festivals with a capacity of up to 5,000 people despite concerns over noise and parking.

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At a South Derbyshire District Council licensing hearing on Friday, councillors granted a premises licence for Crow Park, part of the extensive Melbourne Hall estate owned by the Marquis of Lothian, to the east of the town off Blackwell Lane. This comes three years after Melbourne Hall was granted permission to host 30 events a year with a capacity of 1,000 people.

Residents feared the impact of another festival, due to already managing the impact of Download Festival, Donington Racetrack and East Midlands Airport.

Councillors approved the plans from Raymond Gubbay Ltd, owned by Sony Music, to be able to host one three-day event per year - for a maximum of 4,999 people.

This would include live music and alcohol sales from noon until 10.30am Friday through Sunday but with no overnight camping, meaning attendees would have to leave and return should they buy consecutive tickets.

Roger Lowe, on behalf of the applicant, told the hearing weekend tickets would not be available.

He sought to allay fears that this annual event series would be comparable to another Download Festival, a rock music festival hosted at Donington Park, two miles away.

Mr Lowe told the hearing: "Download is for 120,000 people, it is a very different type of event to one for 4,999 people.

"The type of event will be comedy nights and music compliant with the noise limit (65 decibels), which should tell you something about the sort of music it would be.