By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
A Cheltenham music festival which features tribute acts which is planned for next week could be barred from going ahead amid licensing concerns.
Cheltenham Tribute Festival is scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 30 at the Racecourse off Evesham Road.
It is planned to feature tribute acts of Queen, The Killers, Dua Lipa, Arctic Monkeys, Rihanna, Pink and Oasis and run from noon to 10pm.
Tickets have been on sale but the event does not yet have a premises licence.
Cheltenham Borough Council is due to consider plans for the site two days before it takes place.
They have applied for permission for dance, live music and record music performances to be allowed from noon until 11pm as well as the supply of alcohol.
But environmental protection officers at the authority and neighbouring Tewkesbury Borough Council are calling for the licence application to be refused.
They have concerns over inappropriate background noise levels used in the noise assessment, the need for off-site sound monitoring and a lack of limits for low-frequency noise and no monitoring of low-frequency.
“I must therefore recommend that given the information currently available, the application for a premises licence relevant to this event is refused, as I consider it likely that it will cause significant public nuisance affecting a broad range of properties in the Prestbury and Southam areas,” their report reads.
Tewkesbury Borough Council officers echoed these concerns.
They said the noise management plan does not include any provision for off-site noise monitoring on the day of the event.
“As such, it does not provide sufficient assurance that noise will be effectively managed to protect residents within Tewkesbury Borough,” they said in their report.
“Should the committee be minded to approve the application despite these concerns, we would strongly recommend that the same noise control conditions used at the Wychwood Music Festival be attached to this licence.
“These were implemented successfully following joint monitoring with Cheltenham’s Environmental Protection Team and provided a robust framework for managing noise impacts to local residents.”
Cheltenham Borough Council’s senior environmental health officer raised concerns over public safety, crowd management, water provision and protection of children from harm.
“The plans do not account for the A435 road closure. The method of segregating vehicles and pedestrians on site are not clear,” they said in the report published by the council.
“No detailed plan has been provided to indicate safe ingress and egress of vehicles or pedestrians, during the build and the event. There may be a risk of vehicle pedestrian collision.”
They also said there were no calculations for crowd management.
“The attendance demographic has not been considered (e.g. will the crowd be spread out or want to jump on top of each other).
“It is not clear how people will move from viewing the stage to the bar or how the layout of the event will facilitate this.
“There may be a risk of crowd surging or over excitement leading to injury.”
The council’s licensing sub-committee will consider the proposals at their meeting on August 28, 2025.
The organisers have been approached for comment through Cheltenham Racecourse.