To comply with the terms of our insurance, licensing and safeguarding policies, Livestock policy effective from January 2024 is implement strictly no outside alcohol  policy.

Unfortunately, visitors to Livestock Music Festival, Music from The Black Barn and park Live events from 2024 onwards will not be able to bring their own alcoholic drinks. 

We have been working hard to meet the requirements of our license and maintain safety on the site. In 2023 there was an attempt to more closely control the amount of alcohol visitors were bringing onto the site, which sadly did not have the desired effect. There were still some who managed to bring excessive amounts and over consumed, causing risk to themselves and to others due to their behaviour, which under the license would be our responsibility, meaning any incident could cause the festival to lose the license and not be able to continue. 

It is unfortunate that the behaviour of a minority has forced this decision, it is not one we have taken lightly. However it is most important to us to comply with licensing and safety regulations to preserve the event.

Alcohol Policy

Livestock Events CIC is committed to ensuring a safe and well spirited Festival; Livestock Music Festival understands that at the centre of this commitment is a fair alcohol policy which will encourage responsible drinking. Livestock Music Festival will be implementing a wrist band system, a wrist band will be given to all guests. Wrist bands will be distributed at the entrance, and as they are tamperproof, they will last the entire festival. No bar will sell alcohol to anyone (no matter how old they are) without an appropriate adult wristband, this is to ensure the safety of all at the festival as they allow quick identification of guests and their age. Age may be checked on issuing wrist bands, all on site should carry valid ID at all times. Festival staff and security will remove wrist bands from all who are removed from the site and also will confiscate the bands from anyone who has been found to be:

• acting in a disruptive or abusive manner whilst under the influence of alcohol

• purchasing alcohol for the consumption of a minor

• purchasing alcohol for someone who has been refused for being in excess of alcohol

All drinks sold in the Festival will be in open paper or plastic containers.

Stewards will report to bar managers if they see any guest who they believe may be approaching an excess of alcohol, so the bar managers can deal with any problems arising, before the guest is refused service.

Bar staff will operate the ‘Challenge 25’ scheme on all bars. Posters are displayed in a prominent position in bar areas to demonstrate commitment to this scheme.

Livestock Music Festival will inform local licensed premises regarding our wristband policies, enabling them to be aware of anyone who may have had their bands removed.

If a guest appears to be under 25, depending on which scheme is represented, then we require proof that he/she is over 18. In these circumstances staff are required to:-

• Explain that it is against the law to serve alcohol to Under 18′s.

• Ask for identification.

Only three types are acceptable: PASS’ hologram proof of age card, British Passport, Photograph driving license.

• If a guest does not have identification, suggest they return with some and they will be served when they do.

Each member of staff receives comprehensive training covering all key aspects of working in a licensed premises including Health and Safety policies as well as education as to the legal requirements of their role, including their responsibilities not to serve under 18′s and those who are intoxicated. This is reinforced on site at the briefing by the personal licence holding manager on each bar.

To comply with licensing regulations and to ensure safeguarding of persons under the age of 18, it is no longer possible to purchase a Child or Teen ticket from the website without an accompanying qualifying Adult ticket.

Ticket buyers will no longer be able to complete a transaction for any ticket for a person under the age of 18 without an Adult ticket in the basket. 

Purchasers of all tickets for Livestock will now be required to fill in the names of all attendees in their group as part of the safeguarding procedure.

Forty Hall Farm is now a no smoking site. We are no longer able to have a designated smoking area which means that smoking at events on the farm is no longer permitted.

Unfortunately not. Tents and gazebos take up a lot of space. Licensing capacity is 0.5 square metres per person, a gazebo used by four people may take up 9 square metres. We have to balance the available space with the number of people which can be safely accommodated. 

If just 10 groups of four people bring a 3m gazebo, forty people would take up the space which could otherwise accommodate approximately 200 people and potentially jeopardise the safety of themselves and those around them.

These areas become very busy, a safety exclusion zone is being implemented by Livestock and will be enforced by stewards for the safety of festival goers.  

When these areas become busy there is a risk to personal safety and damage to personal property if chairs are placed in areas where the crowd could surge and people would wish to dance in front of the stages.

Well behaved dogs on leads are welcome at Livestock Music Festival. It is the responsibility of the owner to care for their animal and they must be aware of the nature of the site and decide whether it is appropriate.  Forty Hall Farm is a working farm and care must be taken for the farm animals and site at all times.

For the Livestock Music Festival there are parking restrictions in place.  

Livestock provide attended parking on the field between the Jesus Church and Forty Hill Primary School.  There is a small charge for this which is all donated to the Rotary Club Charities who provide the volunteers for this area.

There is no parking along the west (Forty Hall Estate) side of Forty Hill itself, cones will be in place and there is a risk of the vehicle being removed if parked there. 

Festival goers are not allowed to use the public car park in Forty Hall as this is to be left free for members of the public visiting the park and house.

There are a limited amount of Disabled parking spaces on Forty Hall Estate, permits can be issued to use these when booked in advance of the festival.

For Music from The Black Barn, parking is available in the public Forty Hall car park.  If this is locked please contact a member of the venue team and we can arrange for it to be unlocked.

It is with regret that Livestock Events is having to withdraw the sale of Teen tickets to any unaccompanied person under the age of 18 for future Music from The Black Barn events. Going forwards until such a time as we can make issue of these tickets more secure,  Teen tickets will only be available for the Livestock Music Festival and only valid if sold with an accompanying adult ticket, that person must be present, over the age of 25 and with appropriate ID for both to gain access.  Any existing orders for individual teen tickets for Livestock 2023 will be reviewed against data that we hold regarding the troublemakers at The Black Barn.

We have been forced to take a decision which impacts a number of perfectly well behaved individuals and for that we can only apologise to those affected. 

We do not want to do this. However an unruly contingent have taken to arriving in large groups at Black Barn events. Individuals who behave in an aggressive, offensive and disrespectful manner to staff, have been illegally consuming alcohol outside the event in the public park and attempting to bring alcohol onto the premises and to purchase alcohol, copying and sharing tickets, attempting to transfer tickets (which is a breach of our conditions of sale), persistent rudeness towards staff and repeated flagrant attempts to gain access to the venue without proper tickets. 

Our staff, most of whom are volunteers, deserve to be treated with respect and courtesy at all times, unfortunately there appears to be a considerable contingent within this group who are not prepared to show them the respect they deserve.  Our attitude is very much that if people want to come and be treated as adults, they need to behave like adults and by doing so will be treated accordingly. 

We want to provide a safe space for all members of the community to enjoy live music, however when we have significant groups of unruly individuals at the event we cannot put the safety of the individuals concerned, the events, our license or others present at risk.

Yes, all guests are issued with a wrist band on validation of their ticket. As long as you do not lose this you can come and go as you please.

Site security will check wristbands on site and at entry/exit points. Persons with wristbands which have been tampered with or which appear to have been exchanged may be asked to provide proof of purchase and ID, failure to provide these will neccessitate either removal from the site or requirement to purchase a valid ticket.

Unfortunately, due to increases in costs over the last four years and continuing pressure on cost increases we have had to take the regrettable choice to increase ticket prices for all our events.

As a community based not-for-profit organisation, we are very aware of how the cost-of-living crisis is impacting local people and communities. With this in mind, we have delayed these increases for as long as we possibly could and kept them as small as possible.

Increased prices now does not mean permanently increased prices. Should the opportunity arise either through improved market conditions or external funding we will pass those savings on to ticket prices wherever we can.  We are also looking at having more dynamic pricing for Music from The Black Barn and Park Live events which would enable us to reduce prices where possible depending on costs.