Relief for music fans as councillors give go-ahead to keep staging massive concerts at Boucher Playing Fields in Belfast

The city’s licencing committee made the decision after hearing about noise complaints from residents whenever concerts are staged there.

Their decision still needs to be ratified in a fortnight by the full council.

But those in attendance at the committee meeting indicated there was no substantial dissent.

The council has hired out the playing fields to promoters to stage gigs for about the last decade, bringing in some massive international names – most recently, Ed Sheeran, who played to scores of thousands of fans over two nights last month.

Despite owning the land, and being the applicant for the events licence, the council still has to get the backing of its licencing committee if it wants to keep staging gigs there.

The meeting on Wednesday night heard that during the Ed Sheeran gigs, a council noise officer was able to make out the lyrics from about one mile away from the stage.

MORE HERE: Council to consider use of Belfast’s Boucher Road for gigs after noise complaints over Ed Sheeran concerts – unnamed resident says that it ‘disturbs the quiet enjoyment of his home’

DUP councillor Tracy Kelly, one of its members, told the News Letter they are sensitive to local complaints, but must weigh them against “what it brings into the city”.

“Northern Ireland was never one for getting big acts,” she said.

“It was normally Dublin people had go to see anyone big.

“I’d be very surprised if you never got any complaints from anything that happened. Not everyone is always going to be happy.”

And Green Party councillor Brian Smyth (former singer with the rock group Dirty Stevie), another committee member, said council officers had taken readings from recent gigs and found they did not exceed the maximum allowable decibel limit.

“You’re talking about world-class acts coming to Belfast,” he said, adding that they give “tens of thousands of people at lot of enjoyment”.

Especially after the pandemic people want to attend big events – “the kind of stuff that makes you feel alive”.

One complainant had wanted such gigs moved indoors, but councillor Smyth said this would limit the audience drastically, “and I suspect you’ll not get The Killers wanting to play a gig for 10,000 people”.

He also stressed that the Boucher Playing Fields are “off the beaten track”, outside the city centre in what is a largely retail and industrial zone.

The council has told the News Letter the crowd capacity for Boucher Road Playing Fields events is 42,500 people.

More from this reporter:

Ed Sheeran: Bird’s eye view of one of the weirdest stages in Belfast gig history