Council leader slams festival organisers for leaving park as an 'absolute dump'

Alessandro Georgiou said the council had told them it would be “keeping their deposit” and “charging back the fee it costs to clean up”, reports James Cracknell

Alessandro Georgiou slammed the festival organisers in a social media video

The leader of Enfield Council has slammed the organisers of a cultural festival that took place on a public park at the weekend – for leaving it as “an absolute dump”.

The UK’s Congress of Igbo Leaders hosted a summer festival on Saturday (11^th) at Enfield Playing Fields but, according to council leader Alessandro Georgiou, breached their permitted maximum capacity, played music that was too loud, and “didn’t clean up after themselves”.

Cllr Georgiou said that, as a result of these event licence breaches, the council had told the festival organisers it would be “keeping their deposit” and “charging back the fee it costs to clean up”. They will also “not be welcome back” in the borough for any future events, the Tory leader added.

The comments were made by Cllr Georgiou in a video published on his personal social media, designed to act as a warning for other event organisers about complying with licence conditions.

The Dispatch has reached out to the Congress of Igbo Leaders for a response but has not received any reply.

The Igbo people trace their heritage to Igboland, a region of south-east Nigeria that is home to many different ethnicities united around a common set of Igbo languages. There are thought to be tens of thousands of people with Igbo heritage living in the UK.

The festival organised by The Congress of Igbo Leaders was supposed to facilitate up to 3,000 people but, according to Cllr Georgiou, saw more than three times as many arrive.

The Conservative council leader said: “They broke their conditions and 10,000 people turned up. They left Enfield Playing Fields as an absolute dump.

“Thankfully our fantastic fly-tipping officers came in, sorted it out, cleaned up the park. These organisers were playing music that was far too loud. We had so many residents complain.”

After explaining the action taken against the festival organisers, Cllr Georgiou added: “They ruined the park, didn’t clean up after themselves when they said they would – absolute disgrace.

“This fantastic Conservative council, led by me, is not just using words but actually taking action to sort out this mess.

“Enfield’s park and play spaces are meant to be preserved for the enjoyment of everyone and not organisers that don’t meet their responsibilities.”

Update (21st July)

A spokesperson for the Congress of Igbo Leaders said: “We are disappointed by the public statements made regarding the Igbo Festival of Arts and Culture London 2026, as we believe they present an incomplete and misleading account of the event.

“We strongly dispute the assertion that approximately 10,000 people attended the festival and would welcome clarification as to how that figure was determined. To our knowledge, no evidence has been provided to support this claim.

“We also reject the allegation that we failed to clean the park. We paid the agent suggested to us by the council to clean the park. They started cleaning on the event day with the organiser’s cleaners. We returned the next day at 8pm and continued cleaning till 11.45 am. The park manager provided two additional cleaners to join our team. We asked him if he was happy before we departed. He said yes, but added that we shall receive additional invoices for the extra bags and two cleaners that joined us. By our contract we had from 8am to 10pm to clean the park. We have video evidence documenting these efforts.

“Unlike many other festivals where incidents such as assaults, stabbings, or violence have been reported, there were no such incidents recorded at our festival. It’s disappointing that the council leader chose to overlook this positive outcome and instead appeared more focused on advancing his own campaign than acknowledging the event’s success.

“At this stage, we have not concluded the post-event review process with the council. We believe it is important that any assessment of the event, including questions relating to attendance, compliance with licence conditions, or the condition of the park, is determined through the appropriate contractual and administrative processes rather than through public statements made in advance of those discussions.

“The Igbo Festival of Arts and Culture is a community-led celebration that promotes culture, heritage and unity. We remain committed to working constructively with Enfield Council and all relevant stakeholders, and we hope any outstanding matters will be resolved through a fair, evidence-based process.”

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