The Labyrinth on the Thames music festival plans to return to the Old Royal Naval College next year with a bigger event spread across nine days.
This year’s dance and electronic music festival took place over the first two weekends in August. The Grammy-winning DJ Black Coffee was the first headliner, before the band Empire of the Sun played their first London show for six years.
Now Labyrinth, which began life as a club night in Notting Hill in 2017 and has broadened out to hosting shows in huge historic and prestigious venues, wants to keep its daily capacity at 10,000 and extend the run from six to nine events.
Councillors will decide on whether the event can expand at a meeting next week. The events would still run from noon to 11pm, the same as this year, with bars closing at 10.30pm.
Greenwich Council’s community safety team has not objected, but said it wants to formalise a noise management plan after complaints were received about this year’s event.
Four local residents have objected, with one complaining about “ low-frequency bass carrying through Greenwich Park”, according to council documents as well as fireworks frightening children and pets. The East Greenwich Residents Association has said the licence should be restricted to six nights rather than extended to nine.
The Old Royal Naval College has held summer concerts for some years, although Trinity Laban, the music college based on the campus, tried to get the licence cancelled after the Greenwich Summer Sessions shows in 2023 after complaining about noise from soundchecks disturbing its students. It failed but the concert series did not return in 2024.
A condition imposed on Labyrinth last year, and that would be imposed on a new licence for next year, is that Trinity Laban and the University of Greenwich are consulted about the dates for events.
The licensing sub-committee hearing will take place on November 12.
Updated on November 12 to correct a council error that claimed this year’s events only had a 5,000 capacity.
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