Border festival organisers withdraw application

Plans for a 5,000-guest music festival straddling the England-Wales border appear to have been put on hold.

Herefordshire Council was due to make a decision on whether to grant a licence for GemFest - an event between 13 and 16 June featuring an "eclectic range of electronic dance music" - last week.

However, the authority confirmed the application for the festival on the River Morrow, near the hamlet of Walterstone in Hereforshire, had been withdrawn.

The organisers, south Wales-based record label PullUp Recordings, have been contacted for comment.

The festival's website is still live and appears to be selling weekend tickets for £80.

It said the event's location "is yet to be announced, but it will cover both England & Wales, in the Monmouthshire and Hereforshire [sic] areas".

A similar application had been before Monmouthshire County Council in January but was also withdrawn.

The previous event drew about 1,500 festival-goers.

Longtown Group Parish Council in Herefordshire had said policing the event would require "significant manpower".

It raised concerns that access for emergency services to and within the festival site would be "severely restricted" and the music and crowd noise would cause "extreme nuisance to local people".

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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