Y Not bosses get green light to increase crowd capacity

An application for a variation in the premises licence was granted by Derbyshire Dales District Council and takes the capacity from 29,999 to 39,999.

Jason Oakley, managing director of Y Not, said the application was submitted in a bid to get the festival back to being as good as it could be.

He said that capacity at the last festival in 2020 was dropped to 29,999 because “projected sales were lower and we wanted to save some money on the licence fee."

Jason added: “Sales have picked up a bit this year and we are moving it back up just to give us the option. It also encompasses numbers of ancilliary staff as well as customers and we are really going for a strong, operationally robust show this year so there are more staff than ever on site, literally thousands.

“We want to have the option to sell up to 30,000 tickets again if possible (including staff this would mean we would have well over that number of people on site).

"We certainly aren't tracking for that 30K number at the minute but things have improved since 2018/2019 and ticket sales are starting to pick up as we approach the summer.”

Stereophonics, Courteeners and The Kooks are headlining this year’s Y Not, running from July 29 to 31 at Pikehall between Matlock and Buxton.

Commenting on Y Not’s premises licence application, a council spokesman said: “The consultation period ended on 11 March. No objections were received and therefore the varied licence is deemed granted. The increase has also been discussed through the Derbyshire Events Safety Advisory Group, so all ‘regulatory’ partners are aware of the increase and this is being factored into planning for the event."

The spokesman added that fees for premises licences are set at national level and are currently £8,000 for an event with a capacity of 20,000 to 20,999 and £16,000 for an event with a capacity of 30,000 to 39,999.