Welsh Labour plans to lease £4m farm to music festival hit by nesting ospreys
Welsh Government plans to expand a music festival have been put on hold after a farm bought by the Welsh Government for the purpose was found to house a pair of rare birds of prey.
Ministers bought Gilestone Farm, in Powys, using taxpayer money in 2022 with a view to expanding the Green Man festival from its current capacity of around 25,000.
At the time of the purchase, the Welsh Government was criticised by auditors and opposition parties for providing funds before the festival’s proposal for the expansion had been submitted.
The event, which currently takes place in the nearby Brecon Beacons, has been in negotiations to lease the land to host events since then.
However, two nesting ospreys were discovered in a survey of the site last year. Ospreys became extinct in the UK during the 19th century, but a breeding programme has slowly brought numbers back. However, they are still extremely rare and there are thought to be as little as 300 breeding pairs left in Britain.
Now the Welsh Government has announced that plans to expand the Green Man festival to the Gilestone Farm site have been scrapped. Tickets for this year’s festival, which takes place between Aug 15 and 18, have already sold out.
Under conservation laws, a 750 metre restricted zone, in which only “very limited human activity” is allowed, must be put in place around the nest – making hosting a music festival nearby untenable. Officials will consider whether to sell the site, and Green Man has said it will look at other opportunities.
Vaughan Gething, the economy minister who is in the running to replace Mark Drakeford as the Welsh Labour leader and First Minister, said he was “surprised and delighted” when he learned of the two birds of prey. He agreed that the objectives set out in Green Man’s business plan “can no longer be realised”.
Fiona Stewart, the managing director of Green Man, said: “While we are obviously disappointed that the project will not be going ahead at Gilestone Farm, we will now look at other opportunities.”
James Evans, the Welsh Conservative MS for Brecon and Radnorshire, said: “The purchase of Gilestone Farm should never have happened in the first place.
“Conservation concerns were raised early on in this process, as were concerns about the purchase of the farm itself, and now the Labour Government finds itself holding an expensive asset for a purpose completely alien to their initial plan.
“The next time the Labour Government plans to get the chequebook out, they should listen to local concerns and conduct themselves with far greater transparency.”
Adrian Crompton, the auditor general for Wales, previously said of the sale: “By buying Gilestone Farm when it did, the Welsh Government accepted an avoidable financial risk.”
