It seems that more and more music festivals are taking place in our wonderful seaside town this year and whilst it’s easy to get carried away amongst the line-up announcements and ticket releases, Sussex Police have warned today about a festival that is supposedly being held in Brighton this summer, but has yet to gain permission to do so.
The Eastwood Festival is supposedly a Russian rock music festival that is set to take place in the Ovingdean area in May this year. However, neither Sussex Police nor Brighton and Hove City Council have been approached about the licensing to host such an event. There have also been multiple failed attempts at contacting the organisers. The tickets are being sold at £200 for the two-day festival. Bjournal did some investigating and found that the tickets are advertised on ticket website Skiddle, but you can’t buy them and the festival itself has been removed from their 2016 Festival Guide. You can only buy the tickets from their website, which is enough to make any suspicious. There is also little information about the festival online, so it’s understandable that the police are suspicious.
Chief Inspector Chris Veale of Sussex Police has said “Until we are able to ascertain the validity of both this website and the event we would ask residents who are thinking of attending to exercise caution and take our advice into account before providing your bank details for payment. We will continue to attempt to make contact with event organisers and land owners and will provide more information as and when it comes to light”. Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove City Council cannot confirm that this event, should it be legitimate, will be safe to attend or will be authorised the appropriate licenses to go ahead with the event.
If you were considering going to this festival, don’t buy tickets until there is confirmation that this festival is both legitimate and authorised.
Holly Martin
