Mini Glasto is making our lives HELL: Well-heeled locals in leafy South London say they want to move after festival sees crowds dealing drugs, threatening them with knives and peeing up against their £635k homes

Locals living next to a 'mini Glastonbury' said the festival has been making their lives 'hell'. 

Residents in streets around Croydon Road Recreation Ground in Beckenham, south London claimed the two-day Soul Town Festival is so bad they have even considered moving house.

Families in the leafy streets opposite the park where the Motown event takes place have been forced to battle with drunken revelers urinating and having sex in gardens and dealing drugs outside their £635,000 homes.

Violent altercations and police chases have left residents 'anxious' for this year's festival which takes place over the August bank holiday weekend.

Some have even invested in CCTV cameras to watch their homes while others escape for the weekend to avoid the 'scourge' of festival-goers. 

Linda Pollard, 72, described the event as 'hell'.

'I hate it, it's dreadful, it's noisy, it's hell.' she said.

Mrs Pollard, who has lived in her home for 40 years added: 'You won't get one good word about it around here. None of us like it. I can't stand it.

'We've had so much trouble - it was better last year but before, well. 

'They were urinating in front gardens and the lady asked them to stop and they threatened her with a knife.'

Violence and anti-social behavior is something that has worried other residents after a police chase two years ago.

In September 2022 during the third year the festival, police chased a gang of youths through back alleyways before one suspect climbed into a resident's back garden and hid in a child's Wendy house. 

Police helicopters were dispatched and the knife-wielding suspect was cornered in the garden where he punched a police dog before being arrested. 

Although no one was hurt, the violence left one father of two (who did not want to be named) so worried, he installed security cameras outside his home. 

He said: 'We were sat having dinner with the doors open and there's a guy with a knife out there.'

'We'll be more vigilant. We have got security cameras since then, that's why we bought the security cameras because this is genuinely not funny.'

The concerned neighbour who has two children under the age of six also described gangs of youths dealing drugs and drunken louts wandering down the quiet, tree-lined streets.

'There's been people at the end of the road selling drugs and neighbours telling people to go away -  it's a family neighbourhood.

'The drugs is one that's widely shared and general drunkenness when this street is full of families - many kids on the street are little and it's all day for two days.

'The traffic is one thing and then the police thing happened and it's not funny anymore.'

He also said that some families find the whole event so horrible that they flee the usually quiet neighbourhood, where houses go for more than half a million pounds, to escape the noise and mess.

People will leave for a long weekend, they'll get into rows - it's a bit of a scourge.' he said.

Tony Fox who has lived opposite the park for 27 years said that drunken festival-goers have used a car park next to his house to take drugs and go to the toilet.

News Shopper reported that Mr Fox had labelled the event a 'mini-Glastonbury' during a council meeting where he he complained about the noise.

Speaking to MailOnline he said: 'They use this area as a toilet and for drug taking, they're just going right against the fence but last year they did put up a fence around the area.

'Before we had every kind of drug taking, we had couples, getting too friendly in the back.' he said.

Mr Fox, in his 50s said that he had complained to the council and the event organisers and improvements had been made including more security but admitted he was still 'anxious' for this year's festival. 

He said: 'I'd rather it wasn't happening. 

'We were going to move at one point, we've been here 27 years and I just thought I don't want to do this any more.

'We caught couples in the back, the drug taking, that was too much and they didn't care, they were gone already. Two o'clock in the afternoon and they were gone or high or whatever.

'I'm anxious, I'm still anxious but they've promised security again.'

The concerned neighbor said it had got so bad in recent years that he has installed 14 CCTV cameras around his home and garden including five at the front after his one reveler threatened his son with a knife.

The festival, which has been going for five years, attracts more than 10,000 people but locals say it ruins their weekend as they are trapped in the homes and blasted by loud music.

One couple who did not want to be named said: 'Because its the whole weekend you have to think ahead, the parking is already bad.

'You have to plan around it. We'll go shopping on a Friday because otherwise you can't stop and get your food back in the house and it blocks the road.

'If you want to do any chores you have to do it before 11am because otherwise you can't get back, just forget it, you can't park anywhere.

'One time I had to park at a friends because I couldn't park here and had to get a lift, it was about a ten minute drive.

'If they're going to do things in the park that attract about 5,000 people a day there need to be more restrictions.

'I know they say they have sound equipment but we can hear it here.

'They just need to think it through a bit just because it's got so big and the thing is there are alternative venues around here for it.'

 X and Y who organise Soul Town Festival said: ' STATEMENT

A spokesman for Bromley council said: 'The decision to grant permission for Soul Town Festival to return to Croydon Recreation Ground was made following a successful reduction in disturbances in recent years. 

'This reflects the efforts made by the festival organisers to satisfy the concerns of nearby residents and follow the recommendations of the police, with there being a significant reduction in objections this year and many residents recognising the improvements that have been made.'