English Festival Cancelled After Pete Doherty is Prohibited from Playing

BY Ben ConoleyPublished Aug 20, 2008

It seems as though there is no end in sight for the long-standing feud between Pete Doherty and the law. Police in the English town of Westbury, Wiltshire successfully banned Doherty from performing with his band Babyshambles at the Moonfest Festival. As a result, organizers have pulled the plug on the forthcoming event entirely.

Babyshambles were originally scheduled to headline the three-day event, however the North Wiltshire Magistrates Court put the kibosh on those plans after police lobbied the court to ban Doherty. Speaking to the Telegraph, Chief Superintendent Julian Kirby said, "We carried out an analysis of what Pete Doherty and his band does. What he does as part of his routine is to gee up the crowd. They speed up and then slow down the music and create a whirlpool effect in the crowd. They [the crowd] all get geed up and then they start fighting.”

Moonfest organizers posted on their website that "with Pete and Babyshambles being our headlining act for the weekend, this draconian action taken by the police make it impossible to run the event at the end of August. To say we are surprised and devastated would be an understatement. The police attended every public event licensing meeting over the last six months. They have always been aware that Babyshambles and Pete were appearing. The police also attended the public hearing on the 24th July when the licence was granted and made no objections; indeed they actively supported the event at the meeting. We are currently carrying out the huge task of contacting all the people involved in putting the festival together. Once we have done that we will be contacting directly all people who have purchased tickets.”

Babyshambles "Delivery”

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