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No more music at Cafe Afrika?

Repost from Cafe Afrika e-mail | 26.04.2004 10:18 | Culture | Cambridge

Dear Café Afrika People,

You may have heard on the grapevine that Cambridge City Council
has refused the renewal of our public entertainments license.
This means we are not permitted to host live music events.

Our neighbours complained about noise on the street and disruption
of the peace and quiet in the area. They started a petition and
gained 28 names, the council received the petition along with some
letters of complaint. Some of the complaints include people talking
on their mobile phones outside and people talking whilst walking down
the street.

We believe that a few of the neighbours and some of the City Councilors
want us to shut down altogether.

The previous manager of the Café was in a constant struggle with the
neighbours and with the council. So we are not taking this situation
personally. We have the right of appeal against the Council's ruling
and will be using it, but we have to wait a month before doing so.

We respect our neighbours. As you are aware as customers of the Café
we put a lot of effort into minimising the noise on the street, asking
people to be quiet when they leave. The building is soundproofed so we
know there is no noise coming from the music inside. We ensure the
doors are closed at all possible times. We think that the noise is not
only from people in Café Afrika, but also from pubs in the area and
from people at the kebab van on the corner.

The Junction is closed all summer, the Boatrace has shut down, we are
the only live music venue aside from the Man on the Moon and the Corn
Exchange near the centre of town.

We are the only venue which consciously promotes community values,
cultural diversity, and equal access to the arts. We fundraise
regularly for charity organisations, we always welcome local talent and
local artists, we provide a free space for many promoters, community
groups, meetings and activities.

Cambridge needs Café Afrika to stay open. We need your support.
Help us to campaign and continue what we have started, and most
of all keep coming to the Café.

Let's not let Cambridge be the home to only brewery owned pubs and
chainstores. Please write letters of support to us or to the city
councilor Liddle, email us at  byfaal@cafeafrika.com and let us know
what you think.

We have our own petition in the Café, and are starting a free membership
scheme so we can demonstrate just how many people appreciate the cultural
significance and contribution of the Café.

Come in and sign the petition, and realise that we are open, a bar
and café and restaurant, we are still being creative, will provide
events for all aspects of the community (events which do not require
a license include educational dance and drumming workshops, spoken
word events, political presentations, solo musicians and independent
film screenings).

We will always have the music - even if it's not live it will be of good
quality and will have traveled from all far corners of the world.

Please forward this email on to anyone you think may be interested and we
hope to see you soon at the Café.

Best wishes to you and yours

The Café Afrika Crew

Café Afrika
Sturton Street
Cambridge
CB1 2QF

01223 716 309
 byfaal@cafeafrika.com

Repost from Cafe Afrika e-mail


Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

Tell your Councillors how much you value Cafe Afrika

26.04.2004 11:00

Go to the following page and click on the link to your part of Cambridge to find out the e-mail address of your City Councillor.

 http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/councillors/contents.htm

Ask them what they are going do about it and tell them that you'll be voting for Cafe Afrika friendly people in the upcoming local elections ;-)

Poon


Thank God

26.04.2004 13:05

It's closing ? Fantastic !!!!!!

The selfish inconsiderate noise from this building should have gone ages ago.

A victory for common sense

Local Resident


It is clearly not closing

26.04.2004 13:48

The reading comprehension skills of local residents appear to be rather low; the above email states pretty clearly that Cafe Afrika is not closing, they are just being denied re-issue of their entertainment license, something which is going to be appealed.

If you are in fact a local resident, can you tell us exactly what bothers you about Cafe Afrika and any reasons why you suspect that it is responsible for more noise than the other 20 pubs within ten minutes walking distance?

afrifan


Its not a local resident

26.04.2004 15:44

Its one of those no-life losers that spends all day posting juvenile contrary nonsense on websites like its funny or something and then goes off and giggles about it while wanking.

Its the cyber-equivalent of schoolboys phoning a random number and sniggering.

weary of such nobheads on IMC


So the voice of the people doesn't count huh?

27.04.2004 11:09

"Our neighbours complained about noise on the street and disruption
of the peace and quiet in the area. They started a petition and
gained 28 names, the council received the petition along with some
letters of complaint."

"We believe that a few of the neighbours and some of the City Councilors
want us to shut down altogether."

"The previous manager of the Café was in a constant struggle with the
neighbours and with the council."

It seems a lot of your neighbours disagree with your belief that your cafe "should stay open". They obviously are pissed off with the noise pollution and will campaign against it. Maybe you should bugger off and leave them in peace. After all, no one would be whinging if it was a commercial nightclub that was being shut down due to noise pollution, would they?

john


Change the Laws, don't shut down the venues!

27.04.2004 14:19

"It seems a lot of your neighbours disagree with your belief that your cafe "should stay open". They obviously are pissed off with the noise pollution and will campaign against it. Maybe you should bugger off and leave them in peace. After all, no one would be whinging if it was a commercial nightclub that was being shut down due to noise pollution, would they?"

You are clearly NOT Cambridge resident, are you?

If you were, you would understand the major contribution to our local culture that Cafe Afrika has made over the last year or so. As they themselves pointed out, two of our other major arts/entertainment venues have been closed down in the last few months, so, we NEED places like Cafe Afrka to keep going, otherwise all we'll have is corporate chains whom don't give a damn about cultural diversity, or the venues owned by the University, which are not always public access (and are not always easy for many people to get to either).

28 residents may sound like a lot of people, but, in the wider context it's actually a small minority, given that many thousands of people have visited Cafe Afrika in the last year or so and appreciated the arts and entertainment that they have hosted.

It would be a great loss to our city of Cafe Afrika were not to be allowed to host a full range of events, as it should be able to.

Let's not also forget that, due to the fact that so many other venues have shut down, many people who want to just have a party will effectively become 'outlaws', as they will have to break the law to host their own parties elsewhere - something which happens here every summer, due to this country's backward licensing laws that demand that everything should be shut down by 11pm - this legislation dates back to World War One and it's about time it was challenged!!

And it's going to get worse, as, no thanks to yet more repressive 'Criminal Justice' laws being enacted this year, the police have even more powers to lock up people for simply trying to entertain themselves.

In fact, if anything, arts/entertainment venues (like Cafe Afrika) should be granted more LATE licenses, because people don't just go to bed at midnight here, you know (especially at the weekend)!

If a few killjoys don't like it, they should come along and see if they REALLY want to have this place shut down, or, if some kind of compromise can be arrived at.

P.S...

I'm NOT an employee of Cafe Afrika (in case you were wondering), just someone who understands and apreciates what they do.

Afrika Advocate


link to council minutes

27.04.2004 16:28

If you want to see the full minutes of the council meeting, look at

 http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/councillors/agenda/2004/0422lic_files/09.pdf

mish


reply to "afrika advocate"

27.04.2004 19:20

"28 residents may sound like a lot of people, but, in the wider context it's actually a small minority"

How come? If the locals really wanted this place so bad then where is the counter-protest (from locals NOT the owners of this place)? I don't see any such thing here, I just see what seems like a load of very selfish people going against the will of the local people, and that is just as wrong if you are an "independent" retailer as if you were a McDonalds.

john


Why th council should be supporting Cafe Afrika

29.04.2004 15:41

Cafe Afrika has had such a positive impact on our community since it opened. It has provided entertainment ranging from the fostering of local talent at events such as Voodoo Jam where anyone is free to take the stage, pick up an instrument or sing, to hosting musicians of international acclaim such as Ibrahim al Minyawi or Sekou Keita. Also Cafe Afrika, with its unique arrangement of stage and screens, has been the only venue in Cambridge to regularly and successfully host multimedia events like Spectrum. There is a burgeoning new arena of audio visual fusion in the performing arts and, with the Junction out of action and Cafe Afrika without an entertainment licence, there is absolutely nowhere within the city of Cambridge that can comfortably host such events on a regular basis.

This news is particularly shocking when one compares Cafe Africa to some of the public houses in residential areas that retain their public entertainment licences. Cafe Afrika has a fresh and wholesome atmosphere that is remarkably free from the taints of excessive drinking, violence or drug use. It seems to me that this must reflect great credit on the responsibility and social concern of the licensees, whom I have seen refusing customers another drink and offering a free coffee instead! Such an atmosphere is also clearly linked with the child-friendly approach to all their undertakings. Where else in Cambridge can one go to a musical event and see young children happily and safely running about and dancing in front of the stage? What a gift this has been to parents who want to go out and share their evening's entertainment with their children.

It occurs to me though, that perhaps I am being a little naive here. Perhaps there is a darker element to this. Could it be that in this new age of fear and intolerance, where we harden our hearts to refugees and asylum seekers and fear Islam, that the very idea of Cafe Afrika is a threat and an affront to some local residents? Could it be that the success of regular events such as Salon Darbuka, presenting music and dance from Egypt and the Middle East, or the very very black skin of licensee Khal evokes a racist response from some local residents?

I have serious doubts as to whether the City Council has given adequate thought to this possibility.

All things considered, it seems to me that Cafe Afrika is just the sort of venture that any forward thinking city council and licensing authority should be actively supporting rather than suppressing. In the view of the wider community, Cambridge City Council has most spectacularly shot itself in the foot over this issue, and has done so in a manner that raises some serious questions that need answering.

Dave Brokenshire
mail e-mail: dave@rocketvision.net
- Homepage: http://rocketvision.net


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