Blow to £148m Euromillions winner Adrian Bayford as he’s forced to cancel music festival after neighbour complaints
A LOTTO winner who bagged £148m on the Euromillions has been forced to cancel a music festival after neighbours filed complaints.
Adrian Bayford, 53, was planning on letting 2,000 revellers camp on the 90 acres of land attached to his £12m Cambridgeshire mansion.
Dubbed The Cambridge Rock Festival (CRF), Adrian invited thousands of heavy metal fans for the third time after previously hosting in 2017 and 2018.
But organisers are now arranging refunds to festival-goers after council chiefs denied its request for an event licence - following a string of objections from fed-up families nearby.
Locals said they did not want to be blighted by booming bass and drum sounds until 11pm.
It comes after The Sun previously reported locals were fuming at the idea of another festival so close to their homes.
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A festival statement said: “It is with deepest regret that the Cambridge Rock Festival Committee need to let you know that this year's festival cannot go ahead as planned.
“Although this would have been our 3rd time at Horseheath Lodge, the Licence now required (not the same as previously), has in practice taken the decision out of our control for this year.
“As you can imagine we are devastated to have to break this news to you.”
The £129 event, which had been set to feature 60 rock bands, would have seen music playing until 11pm each night.
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Festival planners said for the last two events at Adrian’s estate they were advised to apply for multiple Temporary Event Notices, which only required a 10 days’ notice period.
Organisers said: “There were no noise complaints, no rowdy behaviour or drug issues and no traffic problems.
“A good number of happy and mature festival goers enjoyed the events across the 2 years (2017, 2018) in a beautiful safe place.”
They added: “The local residents understandable representations have resulted in a requirement for a hearing.
“Their concerns actually stemmed from the assumption that CRF was responsible for the local noise issues.
“Loud drum and bass dance music originated elsewhere, another much, louder and later running event (with a very different and younger demographic to ours, that had recently taken place in the local area).
“We have three stages in marquees, within around 150 metres of each other, that, in effect prevent us from running too loud in order to limit undesirable "crosstalk" between the stages.”
They said they are continuing with the licence application and hope to run the event again next year.
The four-day festival, which has seen huge acts perform over the years, including Thunder, Uriah Heep and Hazel O’Connor, was set to take place from August 3 to 6.
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The former postie won the whopping prize in 2015 with his now ex-wife Gillian.
Adrian moved to Scotland in 2019 and has struggled to sell the pad ever since.
