Crowd of nearly 10,000 expected at South Downs religious festival
Nearly 10,000 people are expected to attend a South Downs religious festival in July.
A group known as 24-7 Prayer is seeking a licence from Horsham District Council to hold a ‘Wildfires Festival’ at the Wiston Estate at Washington.
It follows an earlier application from organisers of The Big Church Festival for a licence to stage a separate event at Wiston in August – which is expected to attract a crowd of around 40,000.
24-7 Prayer states that it is ‘an international, interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice; a non-stop prayer meeting that has continued for every minute of this century so far, in over half the countries on Earth.’
In its application, it says that its Wildfires Festival will include plays, music, dance, late night refreshment and the serving of alcohol. It says it plans to hold the event ‘once a year, typically in the last weekend in July.’
It adds: “Plays will take place as part of the overall entertainment and worship programme. Plays will take place predominently in tents. All plays will be of a Christian nature.”