A WEEKEND of electronic dance music and rave culture, Kaleidoscope Arts and Music Festival, is being staged near Erlestoke this weekend.
Members of Wiltshire Council’s eastern area licensing sub-committee dropped the needle on the vinyl for the festival to take place off Lower Road, just north of Erlestoke, from Thursday 1st September to Monday 5th September.
A spokesperson for the council said, “We can confirm that a licence for the Kaleidoscopic Arts and Music Festival has been granted as applied for, with one condition regarding noise monitoring.”
Even though the organisers’ marketing previously described the event as featuring up to 1,000 ravers (which has since been changed to 800) the council wasn’t overly keen on it being called that. It said, “Please note that this is a festival event and not a rave which has been mentioned in some recent press coverage.”
The festival begins on Thursday 1st September with a special night of music and dancing for people from the local area. It will then open its doors to others on Friday, with music until 3am on that night and Saturday, and until midnight on Sunday.
The organisers of the festival, Kaleidoscopic Events, based in Yorkshire said, “We’re very pleased to announce that following the hearing, the council has granted us our full licence. We’d like to thank Wiltshire Council for all their advice given during the planning process for the event.
“Many hours of careful planning and preparation have gone into curating this event and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome some of the UK’s best underground DJs and an array of talented visual artists into the field this September.”
The company addresses the use of the word ‘ravers’, “We know there’s been some apprehension in the local area surrounding the use of the word ‘rave’ in our marketing, but we use the term ‘raving’ not to evoke connotations of lawless gatherings, but to describe the act of dancing to the genre of music that we love, surrounded by like-minded people.
“We are a fully licensed and ticketed festival, with a site team and security in place. Our ethos is based around building a welcoming, friendly and respectful community and celebrating the true spirit of dance music.
“Having grown up in the area, we noticed a real lack of arts and music events that are directed towards or appeal to young adults. We’re working to create a Wiltshire-based community where we can uplift and celebrate both local and UK-wide talent in the creative industries and provide a safe space where all are free to express themselves.”
For more details of the festival from the 2nd to 5th of September see www.waxpalace.co.uk/events/kaleidoscope
