GALA 2026

[oldermum]

I did. I have emailed the events team at Southwark and given my objections. Also objected to the way that the consultation was carried out - online meeting in the middle of the day that not everyone could access. In person meeting at Peckham library in the late evening , cold, dark and wet. This means that people could not easily give their view. There is a petition on Change.org asking Southwark not to go ahed with the festival.

[Sue]

1 hour ago, oldermum said:

I did. I have emailed the events team at Southwark and given my objections. Also objected to the way that the consultation was carried out - online meeting in the middle of the day that not everyone could access. In person meeting at Peckham library in the late evening , cold, dark and wet. This means that people could not easily give their view. There is a petition on Change.org asking Southwark not to go ahed with the festival.

Please could you give a link to the petition?

Not sure if it has already been posted on here, but if it has it is on a previous page, so not everybody reading this may see it.

Thanks!

[MrsR]

 

https://www.change.org/p/urge-southwark-council-to-stop-issuing-a-license-to-gala-festival-in-peckham-rye

 

[aggie]

Just a reminder that the ‘consultation period’ ends on Tuesday, comments need to be in by then. The petition is going well, every signature helps!

[aggie]

Ellie Reeves MP will be outside the Herne Tavern at 10.45 today to hear the concerns of local people. Ideal location for discussing GALA.

[first mate]

Had no idea this was happening so missed it. Did many go? I would have if I had known.

[Sue]

https://love.lambeth.gov.uk/lambeth-new-approach-to-brockwell-park-events-programme-proposed/

[JJ1873]

Apologies if this has been asked before. But has the council posted any black and white facts about what income gala brings in and therefore what it funds in the long term? 
 

appreciate it causes a commotion for a few weeks but if it brings in enough revenue to fund the park being a nice place for the rest of the year it feels worth it. 
 

[Penguin68]

In the past such details have always been described as commercially sensitive, which they possibly are. So we've never really known what the deals actually were. And whether they represented value for money for the council, and hence us. 

[JJ1873]

So if we were to give the council the benefit of the doubt there is a chance this might be net beneficial to Peckham rye? There’s a slim chance someone somewhere has crunched the numbers and not done this purely to annoy us? 

[Penguin68]

Unfortunately there are two ways of examining this, if we even had the figures. The first is simply to look at the revenues paid to the Council and see if the costs (in terms of setting it up and recovery from it, including administrative cost) are less than the revenues. This would be quite simple to do assuming we could agree the proper allocation of those costs. But additionally we have the amenity cost to those Southwark residents either (a) losing amenity value through e.g. disruption, and secondly losing amenity value by being excluded from parts of a public park for an extended period in summer. That is not a fiscal cost to the council and clearly they don't give a damn, but that would be the only way of judging whether this event was of overall net benefit to Southwark residents, the only people who the council should be 'working' for. Don't hold your breaths. 

[fishboy]

The "Community Benefits" are documented on P12-16 of the Consultation Document.

Basically unsubstantiated estimates that it benefits local businesses, claims that it provides "opportunities" for local food traders, businesses & people (the term "opportunities" being meaningless - I have opportunities to win the lottery) without any details, facts or figures, and discounted tickets for local residents (which unsurprisingly seldom sell out).

The only direct financial benefit to the Park is a £1000 "Biodiversity Fund" and an undisclosed amount for an "Environmental Impact Fee" - looking at how it was spent this year (flower beds in the playground & Sexby garden) I suspect it would be a similarly small figure.

The actual site hire fee - claimed as "commercially sensitive" and therefore undisclosed - is spent on:

• Funding the council’s free events programme and Cultural Celebrations Fund

• Subsidised fees for community events in the borough

• Off-setting the running costs of the Events service, which supports the delivery of the free community events programme

 Again, no details given, just vague concepts - can anyone name any of these free & subsidised community events? Or what the "Cultural Celebrations Fund" is or does? It doesn't really sound like any of it is worth  the disturbance, restrictions, noise, litter, environmental damage and negative impact on wildlife in our Park.

 

Edited yesterday at 02:01 by fishboy

[CPR Dave]

I'm not sure what to make of that, Sue 

"the Lambeth Country Show will not take place in June 2026."

 

It's been going for over 50 years. Seems a shame to bin that one off in favour of the other four festivals.

[Sue]

2 hours ago, CPR Dave said:

I'm not sure what to make of that, Sue 

"the Lambeth Country Show will not take place in June 2026."

 

It's been going for over 50 years. Seems a shame to bin that one off in favour of the other four festivals.

Lambeth and Southwark are two  different councils, unless you are referring to four festivals run by Lambeth?

[CPR Dave]

Sorry, not having a dig at Southwark for that.

 

I'm just shocked that next door they've chosen to abandon such an institutional community / family event so they can keep pumping out commercial stuff instead.

 

I suppose the same could happen here next although we don't really have any longstanding family events like that one.

[Northern Star]

Regarding Gala fees:
https://services.southwark.gov.uk/assets/attach/280615/GALA-2024-and-one-stage-shows-stakeholder-consultation-findings-report.pdf‘

‘’The decision to host large/major-scale commercial (ticketed) events in Southwark was taken in 2017, deemed necessary in order to raise enough revenue to offset the running costs of the Events service, which supports the delivery of 50+ outdoor community events per year, and in order to continue to fund a range of high quality, free events across Southwark through the Cultural Celebrations Fund grants programme.’’

[first mate]

@CPR DaveWe are talking about Lambeth Council, not Southwark, but I agree. It will be interesting to see if Lambeth fill part of that space with another hire out to a private events company. 

As to the idea that what is gained financially from hiring out Peckham Rye Park is a good trade off, does not account for long-term damage to the park and the loss of access to the community for a month at least, in the best summer months where trees and shrubs are in full bloom and animals are birthing or rearing youngsters. For the Council to claim they are 'green' when they allow this is hypocrisy at its finest.

@Northern Star

Thanks, so they say. I'd love to see a list of these high quality free events and what they entail.

I am not aware of any high quality free events in and around ED. Stand to be corrected though. Crikey, seems like they cannot even let Lordship Lane have Christmas lights this year. 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by first mate

[CPR Dave]

Do we still get 50+ outdoor community events per year?

All the ones round here seem to have been cancelled, like the Christmas Cracker and the summer equivalent and the Small Business Saturday event etc. 

Even on the Southwark Presents page the only events in East Dulwich in the foreseeable future are non-council events organised by other people.

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/southwark-presents?event_price=All&localgov_event_locality[0]=239&date_min=&date_max=&search=&page=2

[Northern Star]

@first mate not aware of any either. Found this relating to 23-24.. 

https://services.southwark.gov.uk/southwark-creates/funding/cultural-celebrations-fund?chapter=4