€50k cost to police the Life Festival

Life Festival in Belvedere House is the most costly event of its kind in the country to police.

That’s according newly released figures last week, which revealed that the promoters had to pay €50,000 to cover the policing charges for the controversial dance music festival, which took place in May.

There were 20 uniformed gardaí in Belvedere at all times during the course of three-day festival, while there were also a significant number of plain clothes officers and members of the Traffic Unit also deployed

Over 15,000 dance music fans attended this year’s instalment of Life, which has been held in the grounds of Belvedere House for the last decade. While only 15 people were arrested for public order offences, 30 were arrested on suspicion of drug dealing and over 500 people were cautioned for drugs possession.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner last month, Cllr John Shaw said that because of the high number of drugs seizures and arrests for dealing at the event every year, the festival is bad for the reputation of Mullingar.

“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.” The suitability of Belvedere House for an event like Life has divided public opinion. The Westmeath Examiner recently received a letter from someone who lives a short distance from the venue.

The householder, who asked not to be identified, said that not enough consideration is given to how the weekend impacts on this living close to Belvedere

“The event, in its current format, has an ‘in your face’ intrusion into the lives of locals with noise levels such that it made the windows of our house shake... I live and work in the area and its economic and social prosperity is of great importance to me. However, I do not believe that having such an event with disadvantages local residents and businesses is the best way to evolve and develop our area,” he said.