Stone & Wood DA seeks to hold two festivals a year

Local brewing company, Stone & Wood, is looking to expand the festival activities at its facility in the Byron Arts & Industry Estate.

Late last year, the company applied to Byron Shire Council for permission to use its Centennial Circuit site as a ‘temporary function centre’ twice a year for five years.

The application, which is currently open for public viewing and feedback, proposes two single-day festivals, each running from 3pm till 10pm, with a capacity of 2,000 patrons.

The first festival is Stone & Wood’s annual Festival of the Stone, which has been running since 2014.

The second is an as-yet-unnamed summer festival that would feature live and recorded music, food and beer tasting.

Both festivals would be held in the on-site car park at the brewery and within the facility itself, with the company maintaining that the events will have little if any adverse effects on surrounding residents, businesses, or the environment.

With finding a park in the industrial estate a challenge at the best of times, Stone & Wood is looking to continue its strategy of asking festival patrons to park at the Cavanbah Centre and then either walk or take a shuttle bus to the brewery.

A temporary footpath connection will then be provided from Ewingsdale Road to the festival site.

According to a traffic audit report completed in relation to the most recent Festival of the Stone, traffic was ‘observed to flow well at the event site and on the wider road network surrounding the event site before, during and after the event’.

No traffic flow or safety issues were observed.

It was noted that only 1,427 people attended this event, well under capacity.

The application also seeks to address potential noise issues arising from the festivals.

Consultants, Tim Fitzroy and Associates, said in their Noise Management Plan, ‘The nature of the proposed function, inclusive of outdoor and indoor, amplified music and up to 2,000 patrons within the Byron Industrial Estate and within relatively close proximity to two dwellings and one managers residence will result in noise impacts in excess of the industrial noise policy guidelines’.

However, according to the noise management plan, this needs to be considered in the context of the temporary nature of the functions, their limited duration, and their location within an industrial area. A range of noise minimising measures have also been proposed, including strictly enforcing the festival’s hours of operation, noise monitoring throughout the events, and the creation of a register of public complaints to monitor impacts.

The application will remain on public exhibition until January 24, and can be viewed via the DA tracker on Byron Council’s website.