WILD LIFE FESTIVAL
BRIGHTON CITY AIRPORT – 6TH AND 7TH JUNE
WILD LIFE FESTIVAL PRAISED AS RESOUNDING SUCCESS WITH GOOD NATURED CROWDS FOR WHAT WAS AN AMAZING WEEKEND OF LIVE MUSIC
WILD LIFE concert promoters and festival partners along with the great team effort with Adur and Worthing Council, Sussex Police and the Safety Advisory Group delivered a safe, successful and enjoyable inaugural Festival at Brighton City Airport.
35,000 thousand music fans descended onto the picturesque Shoreham By Sea to deliver what was billed as the most exciting music event ever to happen in Sussex and for many the best line up of this years UK Festivals. The crowd were one of the most well behaved the festival organisers have experienced.
The traffic plan put in place worked well resulting in very few complaints from local residents. The shuttle buses were a new experience transferring a mind boggling twenty thousand people directly onto site at the Airport. Not knowing where people were going to alight, the first day was responsive to people's movement, coming and leaving the site. Using that information to change the system ensured a smoother ingress and exit on Sunday. Upwards of 10 thousand people walked from the immediate surrounding areas to and from site each day and fewer than 500 vehicles parked in the Festivals vast (and free) car parks. The much feared and anticipated traffic chaos was non existent much to everyone’s pleasure. This was not something that resulted by chance and much praise needs to go to the traffic committee made up of the organisers Traffic Planning Consultants, the police, highways, trains and pretty much every bus company in the vicinity!
Brighton City Airport were also very happy with the operation and festival organisers couldn't have been more pleased with the facilities as it lent itself well to the event.
With stages and equipment at the highest specification, organisers had a big secret up their sleeves by replicating the iconic art deco Shoreham terminal into a bespoke DJ stage which was unveiled to festival goers on entry.
Whilst the stages would not have looked out of place in surroundings such as Hyde Park with huge screens, phenomenal light shows and a huge PA system, the other main concern the residents of the locality had, namely noise, was very well managed. The Local Authority confirmed there were no breaches of the sound conditions imposed upon the Festival.
Working with an amazing line-up, all artists were well received across the weekend. Just off stage on Saturday evening Kesi Dryden from Rudimental said:
“It’s amazing. I feel really dazed coming off stage. It’s pretty unbelievable that we managed to pull this off. Next year is going to be even better!”
Disclosure said on stage tonight said: “This weekend’s been amazing. Our first WILDLIFE was in front of 60 people in London and now to be back in the spiritual city of dance music is unreal. Thank you Brighton, Thank You Shoreham’
The dedicated official twitter account @WILD_LIFE_FEST delivered great communication on social media and received a generally good response from festival goers and the local community. They provided all the latest travel, event information and announcements pre, on and post event.
Rob Ballantine Festival Director said: “We would like to thank festival partners and the local authorities for a great team effort, we couldn't have done it on our own.
However, most of all we would like to thank all the residents in the vicinity of the WILD LIFE Festival as, understandably, they had major concerns at our proposal. We hope they have trust in us now as we have said all along we see Wild Life as something that can be an integral part of Shoreham, Lancing and beyond, bringing huge economic and cultural benefit to the area. We will welcome their feedback and suggestions to enable us to propose a return in 2016 with further improvements to the total experience all round”