‘Income from Life festival not enough to outweigh damage’

The staging of dance music festival Life in Belvedere House and Gardens is bad for the reputation of Mullingar, according to Cllr John Shaw.

This year’s Life attracted 15,000 electronic dance music fans to Mullingar over the weekend of May 24-26. According to Mullingar gardaí, this was the busiest year yet for officers when it came to drugs detections, as 510 people were cautioned for drugs possession and a further 30 people were arrested for drug dealing.

There were 15 other arrests, including four for drug driving and five for drinking.

There were also six assaults reported over the weekend, including two on local gardaí. Thirteen vehicles were detained by gardaí at the festival and four thefts from cars were reported.

Given the size of the attendance at Life and the relatively large numbers taking drugs and drinking, a local garda spokesperson said that the event went well from a policing point of view.

There were around 20 uniformed gardaí on site at all times, while there were also a large number of plain clothes officers deployed.

Members of the Traffic Corps were also on duty in the vicinity of Belvedere over the three days of the festival.

While he praised local officers for their efforts over the weekend. Cllr John Shaw says that Belvedere House’s association with a festival of this kind reflects poorly on both it and the town.

Cllr Shaw first voiced his opposition to Life being held at Belvedere House and Gardens after last year’s event when it emerged that around 500 festival goers were caught with drugs.

The figures are up slightly, something which Cllr Shaw says comes as no surprise.

“The point I am making is that Belvedere is supposed to one of Mullingar’s and Westmeath’s tourism attractions and this festival tars it with a bad name. It’s just not suitable for it.

“Last weekend I was coming from the count in Moate on Sunday night and I met some people who had obviously come from the festival and were walking towards Kilbeggan.

“It’s the same thing early in the morning. People driving their cars are meeting festival goers on the N52,” he said.

Allowing Belvedere House to be used to stage a dance music festival “sends out the wrong message” about Westmeath, Cllr Shaw believes.

“I think we should be looking at a family friendly festival, whether it is country music or whatever else.

“I am a young person and I like going to festivals but everyone sees the consequences of this.

“The amount of drugs it brings to Mullingar has a damaging effect there is no doubt about that.

“The income to the council from Life festival does not outweigh the reputational damage that its doing to both Belvedere and Mullingar,” Cllr Shaw said.