Dereham Blues Festival compared to Glastonbury by pub boss

The Bull in Dereham has been granted permission by Breckland Council to extend its premises licence to the beer garden, meaning it will be able to serve alcohol outdoors and host live music, despite prior noise complaints. 

Piers Warne, a representative for owners Greene King, said that entertainment, such as Dereham Blues Festival, was essential to the business and compared it to the biggest music event in the world.

Glastonbury Festival (Image: Yui Mok/PA)

He said: "There is a level and a threshold where it is reasonable to have activities that might cause a public nuisance in other circumstances.

"I'll give you a very good example - Glastonbury Festival, which we licence, a quarter of a million people turn up - you can imagine the disturbance it causes.

"But we're asking for that balance of what is reasonable under the circumstances - the blues festival would be non-existent if we said no one can have music outside."

The Bull received complaints from neighbours due to loud music during the town's blues festival, which sees venues across the town host live performances.

The pub, in the high street, was subject to a council investigation in the autumn and was found to be creating "unacceptable noise" which could be heard in the bedrooms of neighbouring properties.

The Journeymen playing at The Bull as part of the Dereham Blues Festival (Image: Danielle Booden)

Mr Warne said: "While we fully accept that there have been previous complaints, we have worked to remedy the situation.

"Music is crucial to the business and the reality is that we want to host events - not all music outside is unreasonable."

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Punters enjoying Dereham Blues Festival at The Bull (Image: Danielle Booden)

Breckland Council agreed to vary the pub's premises licence, meaning that alcohol can be served in the beer garden and music can be played outdoors until 11pm. 

Pub bosses have agreed to host a limited amount of outside events and give neighbours advance warning in order to minimise disruption.