Thousands of people attended the 2024 Darley Park Weekender. The three-day event saw household names from the 80s and 90s travel to Derby to entertain the crowds.
The popular event attracted healthy audiences on all three nights, with a total of 11,546 tickets sold. The Weekender kicked off on Friday with 80s Mix Tape, hosted by BBC Radio Derby’s daytime presenter Ian Skye. More than 2,000 people enjoyed performances from Jason Donovan, Chesney Hawkes and BBC Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills on the decks and local band Cassette Roulette, who were also there the next day.
Saturday night’s Ultimate 90s, presented by BBC Radio Derby’s Susan Hanks, drew in more than 3,000 people. They were entertained by Honeyz, DJ Chris Moyles and special guests Blue, alongside The Ultimate Boy Band Party Show.
Sunday was The Darley Park Concert which featured the musical talents of Sinfonia Viva. Hosted by BBC Radio Derby’s Breakfast show double act Andy Twigge and Jack Tymon, it attracted more than 6,000 people.
The Council’s Derby LIVE team acknowledges some customers experienced issues at this year’s Darley Park Weekender. Cllr Nadine Peatfield, Leader of Derby City Council, addressed the issues and explained the reasons behind changes to the Darley Park Concert over the years. She said:
We're very sorry to hear that some customers have had a negative experience of The Darley Park Weekender. Since the concert’s inception over 30 years ago, Derby City Council have worked hard to maintain, develop and improve the Darley Park Concert, and now the Weekender events. We have made the concerts more sustainable by the necessary step of bringing sponsors on board, and introducing a wider programme of events that help support the costs of infrastructure, as well as enabling us to keep costs lower for the Darley Park Concert, which is key to our remit for the weekend.
In the last 30 years, there have been significant changes to legislation and guidance on event safety and like all major events, Darley Park Concert has had to evolve to meet this criteria. Restrictions on furniture allowances, unsealed drinks and alcohol are all part of the recommendations of safety advisory groups, counter terrorism advisors. These are the conditions of our licence to hold the event and have the safety of all customers in mind. We recognise some decisions were not popular, but these are necessary for us to deliver the event safely. Information about these restrictions were widely publicised ahead of the event.
We are aware of the queues that built up to get into the venue on Sunday. This issue was compounded by some customers who had items with them not allowed on site, despite our advance measures. We did respond by opening three further lanes to increase speed on entry but accept that queuing times were too long, and we will be making amendments for the Sunday for next year. Neither Derby City Council nor the security provider would tolerate a poor attitude towards the public by their staff and any incidents will be raised with senior management and will be investigated appropriately.
Changes to the site layout were made in advance of the 2023 Weekender. These made the site more accessible, safer, and reduced the cost of infrastructure to make the weekend viable. Without these changes, and the income generated from the Friday and Saturday events, The Darley Park Concert would no longer be affordable or possible from a safety point of view.
We strive to make the events as enjoyable and inclusive as possible. We know many attendees benefitted from using the wheelchair viewing platform and accessible viewing area alongside other facilities, including the dedicated accessible entrance/exit, accessible toilets, a Mobiloo Changing Places toilet, lowered counters at our bars, BSL interpretation, hearing loop system and Blue Badge holder parking.
During the Ultimate 90s event, we experienced a temporary power and WiFi connectivity issue, caused by a generator failure. This resulted in queues building and a delay to the bar service. Staff worked hard behind the scenes to resolve the issues, and extra staff were put on the bars to reduce the queues. We have already committed to significantly increasing the bar offer for next year, as well as contingencies for power outage to manage the issue we experienced if it reoccurs.