'Furious' locals object to St Stephen's Day rave in rural Kilkenny

Plans to make a rural site in Kilkenny the new ‘home for Irish raves’ have been revealed before a sitting of the local district court.
Both gardaí and local residents are objecting to the plan, despite up to 1,000 tickets having already been sold, the court has heard.

At Kilkenny District Court, on Tuesday, an application came before Judge Geraldine Carthy to allow an ‘occasional licence’ for the sale of alcohol at a venue in Castleinch on St Stephen’s Day.
The application was made on behalf of publican Seán Delaney, Gornamon, Kells, of the Motte and Bailey public house. It requested the occasional licence for the ‘Reboot Music Event’ at Castleinch, the site of a well known car boot sale.

Garda Inspector Paul Donohoe informed the judge that there was a garda objection to the occasional licence.
He explained to the judge that Castleinch car boot sale has been in operation for more than 20 years and the venue has a large capacity.

The event has been advertised by Outset Festivals. The first Inspector Donohoe heard of the event was two weeks ago when Mr Dunne of Outset Festivals sent an operational plan into the gardaí.

The inspector said gardaí are objecting to the occasional licence (to sell alcohol) on several grounds.
St Stephen’s Day, December 26, is one of the busiest days of the year for policing. Mr Dunne told gardaí he is expecting 600 to 800 at the event but is preparing for up to 1,000 people.
However, the inspector said in court, from his reading of social media coverage ‘it looks like a lot more’ will be attending.

He said it would be a ‘rave’ not a ‘country and western’ concert.
Inspector Donohoe said a number of local residents have also been in contact with gardaí with concerns.

The event is planned from 3pm to 11pm, with the occasional licence to sell alcohol to 10pm.
The inspector said the original planning permission for the Castleinch car boot sale had been provided to him by a member of the family who set it up. A condition of that was that ‘the car boot sale shall operate between the hours of 9am and 6pm only.’

He handed an aerial photograph of the site to the judge showing the proximity of neighbouring homes.

Inspector Donohoe said Mr Dunne stated in the event management plan to gardaí that he had spoken to local residents.
“He didn’t speak with them,” said Inspector Donohoe, adding that local residents have made numerous phone calls into the garda station.

“I object strongly and, based on planning, I will be contacting the organisers to say they are not entitled to run any event at night time,” Inspector Donohoe said.

Mrs Marion Walton, who lives beside the Castleinch venue and is the daughter of the late Mrs Elizabeth Power who set up the car boot sale business in the early 2000s, also appeared in court.

She said the entrances to both the car boot sale property and her home are beside each other.
She also confirmed that planning permission for the business was granted on conditions of hours of operation and, she said, her mother believed it only applied for Sundays.
She is in possession of the original document in her mother’s papers.
Mrs Walton said that in her parents’ time the car boot sales were stopped for two weeks over Christmas, for their neighbours.

She told the judge that she found out about the event when she ‘got a phone call from America to say there was going to be a rave beside us. We learned the tickets were all sold out and a massive crowd was expected’.
Mrs Walton said the organisers have said in their publicity they are going to make Castleinch the ‘home for raves in Ireland’.

Mrs Walton said the business is currently in probate, following her mother’s death. Her brother has rented the premises to a cousin who is renting to the organisers of this event.

She said she was concerned her own premises, from where she also runs a business, would be hard to secure, as well as having safety concerns as it is a rural area with windy roads and no public lighting.

Other residents had not heard about the event until she told them, Mrs Walton said, and they are “fuming” about it.
One quarter of the shed would hold 1,000 people, she said.

Judge Geraldine Carthy adjourned the matter to next Monday, to allow solicitor for Mr Delaney, Chris Hogan, make any submissions. She will give her decision on the occasional licence application on the day.