Waterworks at Gunnersbury Park will go ahead despite residents’ objections

Waterworks lineup, Gunnersbury Park, Saturday 13 September 2025

Permission granted for three one-day festivals next month

Three one-day festivals at Gunnersbury Park have been given the go-ahead over the weekend of 12 – 14 September despite objections from some of the residents who live near the park.

Councillors on Hounslow Council’s Planning Committee on Thursday 7 August unanimously approved Gunnersbury Park CIC’s application for Annie Mac’s Before Midnight on the Friday, Waterworks festival on Saturday, and DnB All Stars on Sunday.

The decision also grants organisers access to the site for the full period from 1 to 19 September.

Annie Mac ‘Before Midnight’, Gunnersbury Park, 2 – 10 pm, Friday 12 September 2025

“This is a night and day takeover”

Unhappy residents have been in an ongoing feud with Gunnersbury Park CIC, which runs commercial events at the park. They say it is allowing festivals to take over their local green space.

One of the residents who spoke at the meeting, Sisi Donovan, said:

“This is a night and day takeover of the Metropolitan Open Land with green belt protections.

“Tickets were sold over a year ago, before planning, that is predetermination. Yet we are here today because we still believe in accountability.

“Let’s be honest. Waterworks is not a cultural event. It is a daytime rave that brings drugs and antisocial behaviour.”

This year, there has been a 50% increase in the number of events, with mounting complaints from residents about noise and anti-social behaviour.

Pub in the Park, this year at Gunnersbury Park, previously in the gardens of Chiswick House

The festivals are popular with locals and Gunnersbury Park needs the money – CEO David Bowler

Gunnersbury Park CIC maintains it needs the income from the music events they put on to pay for the upkeep of the park and museum, and the residents who object to them are in the minority.

Whenever they put on festivals, they conduct a ticket ballot for local residents offering free entry, and it is always over-subscribed.

Chief Executive Officer David Bowler told councillors almost 10% of Annie Mac’s ticket sales were to people who came from surrounding boroughs.

Gunnersbury Park is on the border of Hounslow and Ealing boroughs. Each provides 15% funding for the park, leaving the Gunnersbury Museum and Park Development Trust, the charity which runs the park, to find 70% of the money it needs.

Funding from local councils has been almost halved in the past seven years – reduced by 48% since 2018.  The two neighbouring councils set up the Trust to run independently, and the Gunnersbury Estate CIC, run by the Trust, was created specifically to run commercial events to raise money.

The commercialisation of Gunnersbury Park mirrors what is happening elsewhere in London as councils look at ways of bringing in more money. The High Court ruled in May that Lambeth Council was using Brockwell Park in south London for live events on too many days.

READ ALSO: Brockwell Park festivals ruling highlights battle over use of urban parks

The state of the grass in the park in September last year after a summer of festivals, Credit: Save Gunnersbury Park, X

Gunnersbury Park has used the 28 days allowed each year for a temporary change of land use, for the festivals it held earlier in the year: Pub in the Park, Krank Brother and Happy Place festival, which is why it has had to seek planning permission for the three days of festivals in September.

Under the terms of the agreement, the entertainment must end by 10.30 pm on Friday and Saturday, and 10.00 pm on Sunday, with maximum capacity set at 15,000 on Saturday and Sunday.

Cultural benefit

Those who are angry about the festivals have often criticised the Gunnersbury Estate for a lack of cultural benefit from their events.

Tom Paine, of festival production company Team Love, said:

“Culture is subjective, different people enjoy different types of culture.”

David Bowler added the demographic for the autumn festivals was slightly older, so they are not attracting the unruly drug-taking crowd that objectors suggested.

Annie Mac’s Before Midnight event was conceived specifically for people who have grown up with festivals but who, either for work or family reasons, can no longer stay up all night as they used to.

David Bowler, centre, Tom Paine, left, credit: Hounslow Council

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar