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Police are calling for WOWfest's license to be cancelled after organisers failed to pay policing costs.
Hampshire Constabulary is calling a review on WOWfest's license over concerns that the organisers don't have the cash to ensure that the festival can be run safely.
The world music festival was granted a license for up to 18,000 people on land off Shanklin Road back in September 2011. Under the Isle of Wight Act organisers were told to pay costs of over £140,000 by the 31st May to make sure the event would be run safely, but by the deadline organisers failed to come up with the cash.
A smaller WOWfest?
On 30th May WOWfest promoters told the Council they would be reducing the capacity of the festival to 4999 people and would remove most licensable activities on the Thursday and Monday of the event.
But when police issued WOWfest with revised costs for policing of over £40,000, the organisers revealed they were not in a position to make the payment immediately.
No policing for WOWfest
As a result Hampshire Constabulary has decided to pull it's resources from the event saying; "Police have grounds for believing the promoters of WOWfest do not have the financial capacity to ensure that this public event can be provided safely and without causing undue disruption to the community. In consequence the police event commander has decided that additional police resources will not be provided to the WOWfest site."
Call for Wowfest License to be axed...
In a call for WOWfest's license to be reviewed Police urge the licensing committee to revoke the license.
Interested parties have until the 29th June 2012 to add their comments to the the license review.
Whether WOWfest will have it's license taken away will be decided by the Councils licensing committee later this year.
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