Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Festival Republic preventing access to Finsbury Park playgrounds
Lots of you will have received a leaflet about the upcoming Festival Republic events in Finsbury Park which includes the map of the festival areas showing which will be out of bounds. A parent at my children's school (Stroud Green School) has drawn our attention to the perimeter lines of the event and how much this will affect play and leisure spaces this year, so another parent has started a petition that we want Festival Republic to act upon before the build period begins. Many of us have also written to Melvin Benn (as invited to in the leaflet) to express our frustration at this decision and to ask him to replan the fence line before the build commences.
We'd appreciate your support if you feel the same way.
I'm not against the park being used for festivals and appreciate the income they generate is significant, but I do not see why the playgrounds and tennis courts should be placed out of bounds to park users for such a long period of the summer. The tennis courts will be closed from 3-21 July inclusive in the post-Wimbledon period when I imagine they get a spike in interest.
The leaflet isn't clear when the fencing will be erected around the playgrounds so I'm going to presume the full build up/take down period of Wed 29 June to of Fri 22 July inclusive. That will mean over 3 weeks of no access to two thirds of the main playground space following about a month (and still counting...) of the Richard Hope space ("the rocky area") being closed for the over-running third phase of those renovation works. This is simply not fair on those of us who use the park regularly and looks like a lazy/easy way to form the site perimeter without consideration of the nature of the areas being swallowed up by the fence.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Park on
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Download festivals have also made it difficult for disabled people to book tickets. You have to fill in a form just to use the disabled loo, access a wheelchair platform, or do about anything. They refused a request for an easy read guide. They also refused to make a reasonable adjustment to simplify the process.
Very disappointing, Wireless, your policies are exclusionary, and you don't seem to care at all.
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All the lorries in the park are making the wheelchair access even poorer. They keep trying to shuffle wheelchair users onto inaccessible pavements that lack drop kerbs so the lorries can be on the road. The lorries get the un-cambered centre of the road, and the wheelchair users get pavements that maroon you without a drop kerb in the middle of nowhere, or they get the edge of the road that makes you roll into the gutters because wheelchairs naturally roll down hills.
It's everyone's park. If they can't improve their access for wheelchair users and other disabled people for the festival, I'm not sure why their lorries should be allowed to hurtle around the park and displace residents. Where is the benefit for us?
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Wireless is quite rightly catching flack for its incredibly poor disability access: https://twitter.com/search?q=wireless%20festival%20disablity&sr...
I've been complaining to them for months now about how their policy is exclusionary. They just don't care about disabled people and our needs. That's ableism, pure and simple.
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Permalink Reply by James Ingram on
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This is awful. Have people tried using social media or calling them yet to get the message across with urgency?
Or even blockading the playground with kids too so they can't start construction?
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Permalink Reply by Donna FT on
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I meant to update this, sorry! The Council got back to us and said the map Festival Republic included in the pamphlet wasn't the correct one (!) and assured us the playgrounds wouldn't be enclosed by the fence. Some families that are in the park every day have been keeping an eye on it and so far, the fencing is where you'd expect, and south of the playgrounds but we're keeping an eye on it as it's going up.
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Permalink Reply by Pat on
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From previous experience, only the tennis courts are within the perimeter, never the playground.
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Yup, but the map said different this year. And if that was the map the contractors followed, they'd have been enclosed. Fences are going up but with heavy plant all over the green playground this morning, making that unsafe to play in. And Richard Hope still inexplicably shut (looks like a couple of tables need to be fixed to the ground which has been the state of play for weeks). Hard not to be cynical that they're dragging their feet finishing that while the park is given over to Wireless setup.
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Permalink Reply by Konrad B on
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Not to sure about that. If you go to Google Earth and go back in time to June 2019, the fencing can be seen quite clearly around the play spaces.
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When the Bob Dylan played in the Park in 2011, I sat on the swings in playground for a free concert. The main playground has always been accessible as the fence came up to the amphitheater and old wooden fort ( now replaced with the zip line)
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Konrad Borowski - I'm having trouble accessing 2019 the Google photos you've found. Could you please post a link so everyone can see.
With the apparent loss of trust between: many residents; Wireless; and the senior Parks staff. firm evidence from photos is at least preferable to an inaccurate map and other misleading .information and assurances which are challenged.
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I think that the reason you can't go back in time is that I am using the Google Earth Pro app which has this facility. Unfortunately I can't provide a link, but you could try downloading the app.
Attached is a screenshot of the play area as of 29 June 2019.
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