Residents got an exclusive behind the scenes look at Lytham Festival ahead of its first show on Thursday (July 3).
The walkaround allowed locals to see how everything worked and to raise any concerns they had about the event, including parking, access to emergency services and more.
Headline performances from global stars Hozier, Shania Twain, Courteeners, Madness and James will take over Lytham Green from Wednesday, July 3 to Sunday, July 7.
Tens of thousands of music fans are expected to descend on the town for the hugely popular event.
The walkaround allowed locals to see how everything worked and to raise any concerns they had about the event, including parking, access to emergency services and more.
Headline performances from global stars Hozier, Shania Twain, Courteeners, Madness and James will take over Lytham Green from Wednesday, July 3 to Sunday, July 7.
Tens of thousands of music fans are expected to descend on the town for the hugely popular event.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00You're all very welcome. It's just me this year. I'm Peter Taylor, one of the co-founders
00:19of the festival. My counterpart, Mr Cuff, is in Clan Gothland this evening because we've
00:25got Tom Jones performing at the iStemford Festival, so that's why he's not here. But
00:32I'd like to introduce two very important people to you this year, and that's our resident
00:39liaison officers, John and Yasmin. So what we're going to do today is what we normally
00:51do, is have a wander around the site. But a few people have asked me in previous years
01:00could they have a look, or they're concerned about when we have the festival on, what happens
01:05if I need an ambulance? What happens if I need police? What happens if I need fire?
01:11Because people think, because the festival's going on, it's going to be a problem. Quite
01:16the opposite, because we have representatives from all the emergency services, including
01:22the RNLI and Coastguard, in our control room, which sits on site, monitors everything across
01:29the site, but also the town of Lytton. So if there's an issue in the ambulance service,
01:34we know about it in the control room. So tonight, if anybody wants to go and have a look in
01:39the control room, we've actually relocated it to the other side of the site this evening,
01:44mainly because it was too far away from the catering for the police.
01:49You're very welcome to come in, have a look, see all the coverage we have for CCTV, because
01:58we don't just have CCTV in the site itself, we can see all of the surrounding roads, we've
02:05got visibility, so it's quite interesting if you want to have a look.
02:15What the festival's done for Lytton, it basically put it on the map. When you say you're going
02:21to Manchester, or you go abroad, people ask where you live. You say, I live in a fantastic
02:28town called Lytton, and they look at you strangely, and then you mention the festival, and you
02:33talk about the likes of Lionel Richie, Kylie Minogue, for instance, Madness, Rick Astley,
02:39and they all come here, and we're so lucky to have them.
02:42I just love it. I love it. I've been from the very beginning, I helped out Daniel Cuff
02:48and Peter Taylor in the VIP voluntary, and of course then I retired about seven years
02:55ago from doing that, and I've come every year since, and I live just over there, and I love
03:02it when the first wagon rolls up at eight o'clock on the Monday morning, well this year
03:07it was Monday morning after the club day. My best act is somebody I never knew until
03:14Grant, and that was Faithless. Oh yeah. And the whole of Lytton lifted up. They were amazing,
03:22and I'd love to see them again. Well, they're all together, but I think they do two different
03:29things now. Yeah, we've been here 15 and a half years now, and we've been coming for
03:34years and years. We're very local. It's just great, especially what, I mean, we've been
03:41the full countries in an uproar, is it, at the minute, and it's just amazing just to
03:45bring something especially so local, fun, upbeat, good vibes. Yeah, the atmosphere's
03:51amazing, whether you're inside, whether you're outside, it's great. I mean, I've loved from
03:55day one since way back when it was the 80s, 90s nights. God, I loved Pete Tong, Kylie,
04:06I loved Tom Jones, I've loved them all. Rod Stewart, got to put a shout out for my Scottish
04:12Rod Stewart. And who are you most excited to see this year? Definitely Shania Twain,
04:17Rag and Bone Man, yeah. Yeah, it's always good to have a little sneak peek, it's great.
04:22I think the Lytton Festival is potentially one of the best things that a seaside town
04:29could ever wish to grace its shores. It brings the community together, it brings economic benefit,
04:35and of course, it's a hell of a lot of fun. I think education and awareness about a festival
04:40like this is key. Far too much misunderstanding is the root of all sort of conflicts with this
04:48kind of thing. So the fact that the organisers have put on a resident's walk around day that
04:53explains about everything about safety, about emergency services, it just brings it all to
05:00life and allows the community to get around such an amazing festival like this. So this year,
05:07I'm most looking forward to the artist that is our Queen, Shania Twain. Although the others
05:16are going to be amazing too. Hosea, Tamar and I, that's going to be fantastic. I'll be down here
05:21supporting the community, supporting Lytton and supporting the festival.