Public urged to report unlicensed music events

Officers are urging people to report information about planned unlicensed music events which can cause significant disruption to communities.

Last week, a 24-year-old man from Ilminster was arrested on Saturday morning (22 June) following information from a member of the public that an event was being advertised on social media for later that day.

He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to intentionally or recklessly cause a public nuisance and sound equipment was also seized.

The man has since been released on conditional police bail and the event did not take place.

Shortly before 11pm on Saturday, we also received several reports of an unlicensed music event having started in east Somerset with a large number of people already in attendance.

Officers attended and spent several hours in the area where they found hundreds of people present with a number of vehicles parked on the surrounding roads.

They engaged with those in attendance and the final attendees left the area yesterday (23 June).

Enquiries are ongoing. If you have any information which could help, please call 101 and quote reference 5224162005.

Acting Inspector Rose Green said: “Unlicensed music events are unlawful and can cause significant distress and disruption to local residents.

“We put a lot of effort into finding out about these events because the earlier we know about them, the easier it is for us to take action to stop them, as shown by the arrest in Ilminster.

“We will always try to proactively prevent events taking place but where they do, we will always prioritise public safety, particularly where we have large gatherings of people.

“Information from the public can be vital in informing us about planned events so we would encourage anyone who suspects an unlicensed music event might be taking to report this to us.

“Some of the signs of this can be social media advertising of events, a large number of vehicles in rural areas with vans unloading sound equipment and large gatherings of people.”

If you see anything suspicious, report it online or call 101 as soon as possible and report as much information as you can to us.