Petition: Stop Granting GALA Festival (or any other music festival) a Licence on Peckham Rye

We are local residents living near Peckham Rye, and every year, the GALA Festival turns our neighbourhood into absolute hell.

The noise from crowds coming and going is unbearable: loud, obnoxious, and completely inconsiderate. This has been going on for five years. We’ve had people vomiting in our front gardens, urinating in our neighbours’ gardens, throwing food over fences, and screaming in the street while waiting for Ubers, which wakes up our children and leaving us exhausted and furious in our own homes.

The organisers of GALA are just as disrespectful. They told us there would be security along our road but there wasn’t any. When asked if they’d cover hotel costs to help families escape the chaos, they refused. Their so-called “consultation” is a farce: they don’t listen, they just tell us what’s going to happen. They’ve been consistently rude, obstinate, and dismissive towards us residents.

This isn’t just disruptive. It’s degrading. It’s a violation of our basic rights to live peacefully in our own homes. Many of us spend large sums trying to get away for the weekend — and we shouldn’t have to.

The data makes this even more unjust: of 3,000 tickets sold, only a tiny fraction go to local residents. So the people who live here suffer all the consequences, while outsiders descend on our community and leave it trashed.

Even the police initially rejected the licence last year… until they mysteriously changed their minds with no explanation. Meanwhile, GALA continues to make misleading claims in its advertising about “consulting the community.”

Our local park is left damaged year after year. Friends of Peckham Rye, who’ve led community planting efforts, have been left distressed by the destruction; and GALA doesn’t fix the damage. Instead, they pay Southwark Council off behind closed doors, and the council refuses to confirm what is paid, or whether it’s used to repair anything at all.

We’ve had enough.

We call on Southwark Council to stop granting a licence to GALA Festival — permanently.

This festival is not for us, it is not with us, and it does not benefit us. It disrespects our community, our children, our elderly neighbours, and our shared public spaces.

Put the people who actually live here first. Ask Southwark to end this now.

Please consider sharing this petition with your neighbours and local community groups.