Thousands of ravers are set to descend on an Essex village after the local council agreed a licence bid for an electronic music festival.

ZENFest, a “boutique” one-day dance music festival, will go ahead at a new location in King’s Farm, Writtle, on August 19 this year.

Chelmsford City Council’s licensing committee discussed organisers’ application for a new premises license last week (March 31), at a meeting where some councillors and residents raised fears over noise and swearing from DJs.

According to minutes circulated this week, the committee approved the license, but on the condition the applicants provide a complaints telephone number and keep a log of any complaints.

READ MORE: 

A section read: “The log shall record accurately the time a complaint was made, the nature and duration of complaint and the action taken to address it. All log entries recorded [shall] be signed by the designated complaints phone operator. This log [shall] be made available to the Council within seven days upon written request by the Council and kept for 28 days by the Applicants for production.”

The festival, which will host over 30 acts including Toman, The Shapeshifters and Seb Zito, will finish at 11pm on Saturday August 19. No DJs or other individuals will be speaking though microphones, removing the risk of amplified foul language, the minutes said.

Event organisers at the meeting said the festival would have a noise management plan, with a team on site monitoring the sound desk and levels in areas around the festival.

Co-founder Stefan Poelman told the licensing committee: “Noise propagation to noise sensitive areas is a big part of our operation, and monitoring that. We work very closely on event planning and on live days with our appointed festival-specific acoustic management team, F1 Acoustics, who have a wide portfolio of festival clients including Glastonbury and Boomtown.”

Low-level checks would take place the day before, with main sound checks done on the morning of the festival. ZENFest is moving from its previous home in Kelvedon Hall, Brentwood, where it was hosted last year.

At the meeting, ward Councillor Andrew Thorpe-Apps (Con, Writtle) argued the new location is unsuitable for large-scale events. He said: “I lodged my objection to this application with a degree of reluctance to be honest, because generally I am supportive of events being held in the parish.”

Get more great stories like this delivered to your inbox every day by signing up to our morning newsletter - don't miss out!

He later said: “Unfortunately, events at King’s Farm have tended to be a different story and I’ve received a good number of complaints about events held at this particular location over the last two years.”Cllr Thorpe-Apps also claimed the event would attract 4,000 people arriving by car and foot, which would impact traffic and road safety.

Local resident John Hammond said he had struggled to get hold of license holders at previous events in King’s Farm to complain.

He said in a written representation: “Previous events have included vibrating bass, amplified swearing by the hosts and repetitive amplified commentary. That meant family and friends could not sit in the garden and I could not listen to radio or TV in my house, even with windows closed.”