A national music promoter wants to host a two-day festival for up to 76,000 people this summer in Leicester.
Festival Republic has asked Leicester City Council for planning permission to hold the event in Victoria Park.
The park, not far from the city railway station and Leicester University, has hosted a number of festivals in the past including big Kasabian gigs and One Big Sunday with Victoria Beckham, Coldplay and Kylie Minogue, as well as Caribbean carnivals and Pride events.
Festival Republic, meanwhile, has been involved in events such as city railway station, Latitude, the Isle of Wight Festival, the Reading and Leeds Festivals and Lollapalooza Berlin. It hopes to run the Victoria Park event over the weekend of September 16 and 17.
Letters posted out to residents say there would be two stages, with around eight artists a day on the main stage.
The festival would have a capacity of 38,000 people per day, plus staff, crew and artists, and be open from 11am to 10.30pm on the Saturday and 10.30am until 10pm on the Sunday. Work would start on site on August 31 and the park would be cleared by September 22.
According to LeicestershireLive some residents welcomed a return of live music to the park, but others were more cautious.
Judy Edwards, who has lived near Victoria Park for the last 15 years, said she was "sick of these events."
She said: "I'm pretty annoyed, they always say they are going to properly police these events but they don't.
“At the last one, people were urinating in the streets, screaming, shouting way after the music had finished. I'm glad I don't have small children anymore as it would be such a pain. I'm really against it."
But Nicola Wills and Rosie Horn both told LeicestershireLive they had no problem with a festival and thought it would be a good for the area.
Ms Horn said: “We are in support of it and depending on what it is, we are more than up for it. Hopefully if it's successful, they will bring more events like this to the area. The biggest issues round here is parking but as long as we know in advance it's fine.
"We want to have a mixed area with lots on and this is brilliant. We've been to events there before and had a great time. We have small kids and we don't care, these things are important.”
Business owners in nearby Queens Road were also delighted with the news. Miteche Trambaclal, owner of Portuguese restaurant Port and Nata, said it was a great idea.
He said: "It's great for business, and good to bring new and fresh people to the area. As long as it will policed and the safety is all correct, I'm all for it. We need to bring more people to the area and if this is the way to do. Happy days."
Vanessa Poludniak, co-owner of Martin Bros. Pizza Co. said: "It should be good, the only thing that I have concerns about is the parking. There's no parking round here so that may cause some problems. Sometimes with events like this, we have people come by, but they don't necessarily come in, but hopefully we get some footfall through. It'll be good for the area.”
