Village bans festivals after gig-goers have sex in cars and defecate in public places

An idyllic village banned festivals after residents complained gig-goers were having sex in their cars and pooing in villagers’ gardens.

Locals described the rough conditions as “living through a nightmare”, Herts Live reported.

One World Festival Group Ltd applied for more events at Colesdale Farm, Northaw. This would have meant that another dozen events could be held between April and October, just 200m from people’s homes.

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council wasn’t convinced.

It said there were “many reasons” to snub the plans, listing residents’ concerns about further anti-social behaviour.

Festivalgoers were seen having sex in their cars and in plain view.

Locals also complained of visitors defecating in locals’ private gardens, drug use in public spaces and even a car being driven into a crowd.

Watchdog Environmental Health said that the plans could leave residents with 24 weekend-long affected weekends every year.

Hertfordshire Constabulary objected to the plans on grounds of anti-social behavior, pointing out that there are likely to be more drug and disorder incidents.

Parish councillor Bob Stubbs said the plans would cause total “chaos next summer” if they were allowed to go ahead.

He said residents “lived through a nightmare” this summer.

Cllr Stubbs added: “The issues that we’ve experienced are; people urinating in front gardens, defecating in front gardens, vomiting in front gardens, littering all over the place, people having sex in public car parks.

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“These issues are not to do with the quality of the operator, it’s to do with the profile of the people attending the events.

“As soon as you get mass crowds of youngsters in an area which they don’t know very well, you’re going to have all these problems.”

Councillors voted unanimously against the plan.

James Hoffelner, One World Festival Group director, stated that he has been operating a nightclub in the area for over 10 years. He wanted to give it something to be “proud” of.