Goa Cream will not return to Yewtree Farm near Thornbury, UK for the fourth year in a row following a South Gloucester Council decision.
We here at EDM Identity recognize that there’s a room for any sound — whether or not it’s our cup of tea. The South Gloucester Council apparently didn’t get this memo. It has decided that Yewtree Farm in South West England is an unfit setting for the psytrance sounds of Goa Cream Festival, partly citing strongly worded letters from area residents.
On April 8, the Council rejected the festival organizers’ request to return to its event site of three years, which sits near the town of Thornbury. Consultations with the Avon and Somerset Police as well as with the council’s in-house environmental health team factored into the decision.
But it was the letters from residents following last year’s event that seem to have reached a wider audience online. According to the BBC, one said Goa Cream entailed “non-stop heavy bass music; it was almost inhumane and a form of torture.” Another recounted the festival having a “profound effect” on his family, and still another claimed the festival gave him a headache all weekend.
Goa Cream’s organizer, Piers Cappara, insists that this isn’t the end for the 2025 edition. “Hi friends, Goa Cream is NOT cancelled!!” he wrote in a Facebook post. “For all of you freaks looking forward to being tortured at Yewtree farm in September. I’m afraid South Gloucester Council have objected to our licence application, the long and short of it, ‘Yewtree farm is an unsuitable venue for music/dance festivals.'”
The post continues: “All this means is, we are now looking for another venue for this September’s party. I am going to see other possible sites later this week, so fingers crossed.”
Cappara has said that Goa Cream, which serves as a fundraiser for Bristol Suicide Prevention and Sharpness, is popular among music lovers over 40, many of whom bring their children. It remains to be seen where the 2025 edition will relocate.
