On London Extra: Outdoor special

Park festivals furore, al fresco tensions, floral pleasures, open-air football, the Liz Line at three and more, more, more

All the money made from this personal Substack helps to fund the no-ads, no-paywall, high-quality journalism website OnLondon.co.uk and its contributors. This Friday newsletter is for supporters of the website only. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber and don’t support OnLondon through another avenue, please consider taking the free trial. Individual supporters provide nearly all the website’s income. Thanks, Dave.

Thirty-odd years ago I went to a music festival in Finsbury Park, the green lung that gave its name to a neighbourhood where, in my then-recent past, I had spent many dazed and dissolute hours in the company of social deviants.

The reason for my 1990s visit was to write about the occasion for a national newspaper. I can't remember who was playing, but I recall being told of the warm reception my column received at the paper's morning editorial conference.

The plaudits were not prompted by any insights I had provided into the artistry displayed, but by a sign-off sentence sympathising with those who had to clear up the mess left by the crowd.

I share this golden memory to make the point that objections to the use of London public parks for mass audience entertainments, with all the noise, disruption and environmental damage that comes with them, is nothing new.

The on-off-on saga of this year's event programme in Brockwell Park, which has preoccupied much of the London media this week is, in that sense, just the latest episode in a story that's been going on for decades.