Big Green Gathering canceled due to police & district council pressure
category south west | media and culture | news report author Sunday July 26, 2009 18:49author by adelayde Report this post to the editors

The Big Green Gathering 2009, which was due to be held on Fernhill Farm from Wednesday 29th until Sunday 2nd has been today officially canceled after the directors decided to hand the licence for the event back to Mendip District Council, after they were threatened with the prospect of a High Court injunction being issued against the directors and owner of Fernhill Farm this coming Monday 27th. The licence was handed back to the directors on the legal advice that the Big Green would not have a chance of winning the High Court hearing.

The Big Green Gathering 2009, which was due to be held on Fernhill Farm from Wednesday 29th until Sunday 2nd has been today officially canceled after the directors decided to hand the licence for the event back to Mendip District Council, after they were threatened with the prospect of a High Court injunction being issued against the directors and owner of Fernhill Farm this coming Monday 27th. The licence was handed back to the directors on the legal advice that the Big Green would not have a chance of winning the High Court hearing.

The official line from the Big Green Gathering is that the local police and Mendip District Council have made a clear and consistent effort to 'break' the Big Green Gathering, something that they have managed to do today. Word in the field is that the police had prior knowledge of the injunction, some say up to three weeks ago. This would mean that having prior knowledge they allowed many people to run up expenses and costs that will most likely lead to the financial ruin of many individuals and certainly the festival itself.

Shortly prior to the event, the appointed security company, Stuart Security demanded a 60% down-payment and then 40% up front before the event. The Big Green could not initially provide this, due to cash flow before the event and so a loan from Triodos Bank was obtained in order to finance this and meet the licence requirements. However, despite this, due the fact the director of Stuart didn't receive a cheque in time, Stuart contacted the police to say they wasn't going to be the security company for the Big Green. They then dallied in giving the Big Green an answer as to whether they were going to do it and due to this dallying coupled with the Big Green's need to find a security provider to meet the licensing requirements laid down by the council, the Big Green then found an alternative security company, Coast to Coast.

It seems apparent that the change in security company from Stuart Security (who are reported to have a 'special relationship' with the police, backed up by the accusation that many Stuart employees are ex-police officers), was however not satisfactory for the council, who then came up with a host of other demands in order to meet the licence, which had already been issued, at the last minute (see attached letter from the council to the directors of the Big Green), something which the Big Green made every effort to meet.

The last straw was that a technicality that led to the Big Green believing that they'd loose the High Court case for injunction was to do with the road closure order. The word is that the person in the Council department responsible for these order who was going to issue a 7 day order, had pressure put on them by the Council and the police to refuse the order.

It is pouring with rain here. There are many directors and crew who are facing financial ruin due to the actions of the police and Mendip District Council.

Please note that the above are all notes based on hearsay and cannot be confirmed or taken as an official statement on the part of the Big Green Gathering Company Ltd or any of its associates or contractors.
Letter from council to Big Green regarding injuction a pdf from bristol indy article can be downloaded from here  http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/article/690741

STUART LEISURE SECURITY
The Old Station
Wotton Rd
Charfield
Wotton under Edge
Glos
GL12 8SR
wankers

BTW - More New Labour style pay for your own policing tricks in the following:-
"Your domain was also registered against Nominet rules, registering it in
> the name of "N/A" which means your not the legal owner, and never will be
> until this is resolved. In order for the domain to be renewed by Nominet,
> they now insist on a legal owner for every domain, and proof of ownership.
> The charge of doing this is currently £35+vat. Nominet can be directly
> contacted regarding ownership matters on 01865 332244 (please note renewal
> of the domain should ideally be done with us for reduced Nominet rates). "

The only green thing about the BGG is the colour of money or the "director's" desire to make money. Its a corporate sponsored event (hedge fund) with full on tasteless corporate advertisement and security. Costing the same as the other big corporate festivals but without the big bands and musicians to enjoy. Bye bye BGG, you will not be missed....

It's a real shame this. I only went once, in '96. I was 16 at the time, fresh out of school. It opend my eyes and changed my life. I'll never forget how special that week was for me.

How about attending the anti - vivisection protest camp in Lincolnshire against rabbit and ferret breeder Geoffrey douglas:

Activists have occupied land near the entrance of Highgate Rabbit Farm in protest against their breeding of rabbits and ferrets for the vivisection industry. They supply several university and commercial laboratories, including Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The campers are holding a peaceful occupation of the land, calling on the closure of the farm, and for the farmer Geoffrey Douglas to hand the animals over to a suitable organisation for rehoming.

If you can make it to the camp for any period of time, please ring the camp number: 07941184529
The farm is located at: Highgate Farm, Highgate lane, Normanby-by-Spital, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, LN8 2HQ
Click here for a map and directions.

There are several ways you can support the action:

• You can telephone the farm on: 01673 878259 and 01673 878 232.
• You can attend the camp to protest - whether it is for an hour, a day or a week your presence would be greatly appreciated.
* You can write to the farm at the address above,.
* You can attend the national protest on the 26th September (click here for details)

Please keep all communications to the farm informative and polite. The purpose of your correspondance is to urge them to stop breeding animals for vivisection, and to allow the animals to be rehomed.

I think this means that they think your secretely climate camp but not telling them.

Of course bgg's record of health and safety and clear up is exemplary especially when held in the light of Glastonbury or T in the Park. I can tell you for certain that it took a lot of people over 4 weeks to clear up after t in the park last year, and some one was stabbed.

It's not about the fact that you run a considerably more ethical festival.

It's about the fact you might secretly be terroists complaining that lots of really rich people are poisoning the planet. That'll teach you to express your views as green and try and exhibit a sustainable soloution to having the same good time.

That'll teach you to ask nicely,

Turn up and squat it!

Check out www.schnews.org.uk for what really happened.

Out of adversity comes change – most readers should be aware of the way that alternative culture has been viewed by the authorities for the last (make your own number) years. The closing down of the last “big one” must have been on the cards for a while…

Anyway… the only way is to move on. How about a nice trip to the isle of wight this week? Support the occupation of britains only wind turbine manufacturer – under threat of closure. Seize the day (the band) are already there. Why not you?

I went to the Big Green Gathering about 10 years ago and it was brilliant. That was before all the corporate bullshit and filthy cops got involved, I guess. Not to belittle the efforts of the genuine people working on it, I'm sure most of them are in it for the right reasons.

Ah well, this is the cycle of things. I'm sure there are smaller events that are as good as the BGG once was, and which are under the cop radar at the moment. And they may well eventually go the way of the BGG, but there is always something else to take their place.

SchNEWS nicked all their info from Corporate Watch. You can read their scoop at corporatewatch.org

"We won’t ever let something like this happen to us again." said an early statement on the Big Green Gathering website which has since been deleted. Seems like they were admitting the cancellation was ultimately their own fault, at least for a bit.

I think that "Festival" was missing the point a bit. Indeed BGG was far from perfect, but at the same time it was worth the State's while to shut it down in very shady circumstances. The widely reported and utterly bizarre claim that Climate Camp was going to suffer financially as a result of this action is part of a a misinformation campaign to hide the real reasons behind what went on. We actually don't know who gave the order, or why, but the evidence suggests that it came from high in the establishment. We do know that the decision was made a while ago, and concealed from those involved until the last minute, supposedly to cause the maximum cost and disruption. Interestingly, this included a number of "normal" businesses local to the event, who stand to lose a lot from this.

This may well be the summer when the British State comes out in force against those of us interested in environmental and social justice."Festival" can choose which side they're on now or later, but I'd suggest that "later" might be only a few weeks away. The banning of BGG shows that none of us is immune from the vicious hand of Brown's Bullies.

so far seems to have been largely directed 'downwards', from the elites onto us..