CARDIFF Council will make a decision this week on whether or not a series of major gigs at a popular city park can go ahead as planned.
Blackweir Live will see names such as Kings of Leon, Alanis Morissette and Stevie Wonder appear on stage at Blackweir Fields over a number of days in June and July 2025.
The proposed location for the gigs, Blackweir Fields, already has a licence to hold events but a new licence was applied for which would allow live music events of up to 35,000 people there if approved.
Concerns have been raised about the potential for large scale gigs on Blackweir Fields since events started to be announced in 2024, with park users citing the impact it could have on access to green space and grass roots sport.
Questions have also been asked over recent months about the way parks in Cardiff are being managed after the council cut down trees where a new entrance has been earmarked for the events.
Here is a closer look at what is being proposed and why it has been controversial.
Announcement of gigs
Kings of Leon was the first artist announced as part of the Blackweir Live events, which DEPOT Live and Cuffe and Taylor are behind.
The band is scheduled to play on Sunday, June 29, and tickets for the gig went on sale in December 2024.
However, no licensing application was submitted at this point.
Cardiff Council said the park is currently covered by a licence that allows for events with a capacity of up to 25,000 people and Blackweir Fields has been used for events in the past, like the Sparks in the Park firework display.
DEPOT Live’s website shows that the intention is for the events to have a capacity of up to 35,000 people.
Blackweir Live is planned to start on Friday, June 27 with Noah Kahan before Kings of Leon and Courteeners play a couple of days later.
Alanis Morissette is set to play at Blackweir Fields as part of her 2025 world tour on Wednesday, July 2.
Slayer is scheduled to be up on stage on Thursday, July 3 and Stevie Wonder will play on Wednesday, July 9.
Cardiff Council did eventually submit a licensing application for Blackweir Fields in February and this will be debated and decided on at a council licensing sub committee meeting on Wednesday, April 16.
Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for culture, sport and parks, Cllr Jennifer Burke, also said at a full council meeting in March that being able to use Blackweir Fields will improve the live music offering in the city and help fund the maintenance of parks.
However, various groups have continued to raise their concerns about the potential impact of having more events with more people attending them at Bute Park.
Friends of Bute Park said adding Blackweir Live to the summer events programme would be “tipping the balance in the wrong way” and warned that the council’s plans would lead to “vast swathes” of parkland being denied to residents and visitors during the summer.
Coopers Field and Cardiff Castle are already used for a number of events, including live music.
Cardiff Council has said that all DEPOT Live gigs originally planned to take place at Coopers Field later in the summer have been relocated to Cardiff Castle.
Friends of Bute Park also claimed there was no public consultation about the staging of events on Blackweir Fields and that no details of potential events were given to them until a council announcement on the events in October 2024.
The local authority said the possibility for new events at the park was first brought to the attention of the fiends group June 27, 2024.
In their latest statement Friends of Bute Park said the information provided by the council to them, the community orchard and park traders was “scant”.
It said: “”Fully informed” should mean the groups and the public would not have to find out about schedules, plans, inconveniences and major agricultural work via the media.”
A council spokesperson said: “A Teams meeting was held on the next day where the chair was updated on the Blackweir Live proposals, and the proposals to publish a prior information notice for Bute Park Visitor Centre & Nursery.
“The council has met with the friends on several occasions since and has provided several updates via email.
“In summary the friends group were first made aware of the Blackweir events on June 28, last year.
“We have sought to keep them informed as more information became available.
“Blackweir Fields is an established events space that has been available for commercial hire for many years and has successfully hosted large-scale events in the past, including firework displays and activities taking place as part of the Olympics and the Eisteddfod.
“The event promoters approached the council with a view to hiring Blackweir Fields for a series of outdoor, green field concerts similar to those held in Hyde Park in London during the summer months.
“This type of event is popular with the ticket-buying public and offers a very different experience to stadium-based gigs.”
Tree felling
Cardiff Council cut down a number of trees on the edge of Blackweir Fields in March, 2025.
The local authority said the clearance work was necessary as part of its standard risk management and that trees selected for felling were either dead or affected by ash dieback.
Park goers were angered by the move and one ecologist we spoke with at the time doubted whether the tree felling work was necessary.
Alex Griffiths, who was speaking as a concerned resident and park user, said: “Why they have chosen to fell some of these trees now, especially since, as I understand it, Blackweir and the Bute Park area is managed more hands off in certain areas for nature purposes?
“There are areas that have been conservation areas for species and biodiversity and those trees are allowed to die or fall down naturally, so I am surprised… given that it is an area with no or limited public access, that they have decided to clear it.”
Cardiff Council said arrangements were made for an independent ecologist to oversee the works and make sure there was minimal disturbance on wildlife.
Oxfam is providing volunteers for the Blackweir Live events and on their website, a site plan for the gigs shows a proposed pedestrian access and path going from North Road and past the ambulance station.
The site of the proposed access and bridge is where the tree felling work took place.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service also understands that the clearance work was funded by the Blackweir Live event organisers.
Cardiff Council said the trees would have been felled irrespective of whether the gigs happened or not.
A council spokesperson said: “This coppicing work is only being done on suitable, healthy trees which can recover and regrow.
“It involves cutting them back to ground level. Coppicing encourages regeneration and regrowth over time and can make trees stronger.
“Coppicing – even to this level which is required in this case to enable access – does not kill trees, and it can result in overall improvements in biodiversity.
“It’s also worth noting that off the back of the events we will have funding to invest in the park.”
Cricket concerns
Sections of the cricket community in Cardiff are also worried about the effect live music events on Blackweir Fields could have on them.
As the new season gets underway, some teams and leagues are worried about their future and the future of the sport in Cardiff.
One team that uses Blackweir Fields, Cardiff Bay Dragons, said cricket for some of their players is more than just a bit of exercise and that the sport plays an important social role.
Club chairman, Syed Abbas, said their progression could be “severely dented” by plans for more frequent and larger events and that the potential long term impact on their future was a very real concern.
He said: “It is sad because the impact Bay Dragons has on the local community is significant.
“I have entertained charities like Oasis who approached us to integrate people who have fled war.
“We had an 18-year-old kid, an Afghan kid whose family was brutally murdered and… he had nothing in this country.
“He was completely on his own and he was brought in to find some happiness playing cricket because that’s the only thing he recognised and we gave him a home here.
“He has moved on now…. but it is just an example. There are many other people who actually come to us because of mental health reasons as well.”
The main concerns teams have, with regard to potential direct impacts, are the availability of fields throughout the season and the damage that could be caused to the cricket squares.
Cardiff Council said special care will be taken to protect cricket squares form damage and the technology used at Blackweir will be the same as that used when high profile cricket grounds such as Old Trafford in Manchester host events.
They also said the pitch Bay Dragons use is outside of the area that will be used for Blackweir Live.
However, the club’s concern is wider than this year’s proposed event and Mr Abbas pointed to the licensing application which would allow future live music events on site if approved.
One of the leagues that would be affected by future events is the Cardiff Midweek Cricket League (CMCL). There are 1,200 players in the league across 36 teams.
The league’s chairman, Khawaja Ali Ajmal, said the league would not have enough grounds to run effectively if Blackweir became unavailable for parts of the summer.
Mr Ajmal said: “We have reluctantly accepted the council’s offer to play on astro-turf/carpet wickets because without them, we would have to fold several divisions and competitions this year.
“However, this is only a short-term solution—astro wickets are not a proper alternative to natural grass wickets, and they significantly change the nature of the game.
“Long-term, the council must invest in developing more cricket squares in Llandaff and Pontcanna fields to ensure that grassroots cricket is not permanently affected.”
A Cardiff Council spokesperson said in March: “We have been attempting to liaise with clubs through the leagues and we are intent on improving communication channels.
“Dialogue with all cricket leagues that could be affected by the Blackweir Live events is ongoing, however, the Council is confident that all cricket fixtures due to take place during these summer events can be accommodated at other locations.”
Licensing meeting
The licensing application for Blackweir Fields proposes the sale of alcohol for consumption on and off site from Monday to Sunday between the hours of 9am and 10.15pm.
It also asks to allow live music on site from Monday to Sunday between the hours of 9am and 10.30pm.
Cardiff Council’s licensing sub committee will meet to discuss the proposed licence from 10am at County Hall.
The council’s licensing sub committee meetings are not live cast on its website like a number of other committee meetings are.
