Labyrinth Festivals Limited applied to Greenwich Council to expand its ‘Labyrinth on the Thames’ event which took place at the Old Royal Naval College (ORNC) on six nights across two weekends earlier this year.
Labyrinth originally applied to increase the number of concerts from six to nine, but it proposed a condition to limit that number to eight in 2026 to appease concerns of nearby residents.
If the council grants the event organisers a new premises licence, it will be able to hold nine events from 2027 onwards.
The licence application was considered by Greenwich Council’s Licensing Sub-Committee C on November 12.
During the committee meeting, council officers conceded they had made a mistake in saying the 2025 events had a maximum daily capacity of 4,999 which Labyrinth now wanted to double to 9,999. In reality, the capacity was already 9,999.
Matthew Phipps, legal representative for the applicant, called the 2025 concert series an “overwhelming success”, pointing to the fact that only four Greenwich residents made representations against the licence application and no council departments offered any objections to it.
He said: “What we do say unashamedly is that the overwhelming feedback from all stakeholders was that the 2025 event was something very special, both in terms of cultural value but also in terms of its delivery and execution and the promotion of the licensing objectives.
“I do appreciate there are a handful of objectors but the overwhelming feedback has all been positive.”
Mr Phipps referred to the small number of objections as “back-handed compliments” and added: “With an event of this size and significance, one might have thought if there was anything awry you would have had more saying so.”
Cllr Dave Sulllivan, an East Greenwich resident and member of the committee, said he was “pleasantly surprised by the relatively small number of objectors”, but asked: “Are we looking at roughly 30 hours of solid electro beat, or are we looking at a much more varied event?”
The 2025 series was described as an “outdoor contemporary dance music series” with all but one of the artists performing— Australian alt-rockers Empire of the Sun—being electronic music DJs.
One of Labyrinth’s representatives said not all eight of next year’s events would be dance music-focused, but conceded that “dance music is popular culture now” and most young people were seeking that kind of music when sourcing their entertainment.
He did state that Labyrinth was planning to make the 2026 series more diverse, with one band already confirmed for next year’s line up.
Although he did not reveal the artist themselves, he did say that if their new licence was granted the concert series was hoping to book a “legendary English artist who is a live band show”.
When considering representations from members of the public, the committee noted that most of them revolved around the noise of bass emanating from the ORNC when the concerts were taking place.
The applicant’s noise expert said that this year’s noise levels were “well below” the public nuisance threshold, and that organisers had “worked hard with the sound system providers on how best to contain low frequency”.
He added: “We can’t eliminate that problem, but what we can do is assess it, validate it and then monitor it, and then we work closely with the sound system engineers.
“We are measuring permanently throughout the day, and we’ve got constant feedback to those engineers. We will respond to any complaints.”
A member of the council’s community safety team Daniel Bygrave said Labyrinth had agreed to more stringent conditions in their new licence application, many of them revolving around noise.
Mr Bygrave said it was “quite difficult for us to put a measurement on bass levels” but added the council had imposed the condition of a qualified sound manager and sound engineer being onsite during the concerts that would have “complete autonomy” over noise levels and would tweak them if potential noise nuisance concerns arose.
He also revealed that the council had received 12 complaints regarding this year’s event. Two were from Tower Hamlets residents across the river, two did not provide an address and the remaining eight lived in Greenwich.
Mr Bygrave said the complaints mainly revolved around residents not being made aware of the events taking place rather than the noise “being excessively bad”.
Greenwich Council’s Licensing Sub-Committee C will release its final decision on the premises licence application within five working days.
