Ipswich Spill Festival music event disrupted by protester
The organisers of a festival are "enraged" by the actions of a protester who is disrupting a daily outdoor music event with a megaphone and a siren.
Clarion Call commemorates the centenary of the end of World War One and is played out using 488 loudspeakers across Ipswich's waterfront. The protester is calling it a "pagan" event and has been making his views known during the performances. Artistic director Robert Pacitti said it was "enraging and disrespectful". The protester has been speaking through a megaphone from the balcony of a flat on the waterfront. He says Clarion Call, part of the two-week Spill Festival, is a "pagan incantation". The "sonic artwork" uses female voices, including Beth Gibbons of Portishead, Elizabeth Frazer of the Cocteau Twins, and a military wives choir. It happens twice a day and also uses a helicopter to relay the audio. "Your noise is not welcome in my home," the protester said during Friday's performance. But people trying to listen to the music have expressed annoyance at his actions. Angela Burroughs said "he's completely missed the point". "It's nothing to do with religion - it's commemorating the end of World War One and he's ruining it," she said. Clarion Call Mark Peck posted on Facebook: "Is there anything that can be done about the idiot with the megaphone who's been doing his best to ruin it the last few days?" In response, Mr Pacitti wrote he had been "trying to have a dialogue with him". "We are trying to get him to understand the memorial nature of it." During a lunchtime talk about the piece, Mr Pacitti said attempts had been made to contact the protester, "but there's no reasoning with this man". Suffolk Police said it been made aware of the protester, but he was not committing any offence. The protester, Paul Dawson, called it an "evil-sounding cacophony". "That noise was a disgrace and a dishonour to be associated with our fallen soldiers," he said.