Naturist club Eureka to host 'all-day party' as Sevenoaks council approves licence

A naturist club in Kent has been granted permission to host a "day-long party" as part of a 'new start'.

Eureka, a private members' club in Fawkham, near Dartford, has been given the go-ahead to host the Good Vibrations Kent Launch Party, which will take place this Saturday (July 15).

The club applied to Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) to have the party at the site, which approved its license under several conditions.

Eureka will be allowed to serve alcohol outside and to serve refreshments and host entertainment from midday on Saturday until 3am on Sunday.

The party is described as 'an immersive extravaganza of music, nature, & relaxation' and will feature a 'woodland rave' leaving attendees the 'most free they have ever felt'.

The venue has previously attracted national attention, with numerous reports of sex offences happening there.

Kent Police initially objected to the club's bid on grounds of public safety.

PC Phil Comben attended SDC's licensing committee hearing on Tuesday, July 4, telling the panel: "Kent Police's concerns about the venue itself is that prior to 2018 it was the highest repeat venue for sex offences within Kent."

"We've seen a very good turnaround in terms of offences and very few offences have been reported to Kent Police, so we feel we are going in the right direction".

The force met with the owners on 30 June, where they agreed to impose conditions on the event which were already on their licence, such as mandatory CCTV, a ban on under-18s attending and a zero-tolerance policy on drugs.

Jamie Adlem-Moore, whose father Stuart Moore owns and runs the venue, attended the meeting to make the club's case.

"This is a slightly different event to what we're normally doing. We're trying to bring in some new people to the venue," he said.

"Since I started at the venue I'm trying to bring new life into the place in terms of the wellness side of things."

At the meeting, Mr Adlem-Moore stressed that the application was only for one outside bar and for playing music outside, which would end by 11pm latest, after which the party would move indoors.

The event would have two shifts of seven security staff, with the same number of marshalls, he added.

SDC's licensing panel voted to allow the event, which could host up to 300 people, to go ahead.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting System after the meeting Mr Adlem-Moore said: "I'm glad that this is hopefully the start of a good relationship with the police and the council and we can move forward and do lots more like it in a safe environment.

"It's essentially a new start for the place and hopefully getting it away from the name that it might have had in the past.

"It's basically just a day-long party, and then we're offering camping. We have cabins on site that people will be renting and that's to save people having to travel home after when they're intoxicated."

He added: "It's still a naturist venue, we don't affiliate ourselves in any way with swingers' parties.

"It's never an event of a sexual nature, even though we are a naturist venue this has all been about the licensing - and we don't hold a sex licence.

"We don't have any events of a sexual nature as such down there, it's just because of the fact that it's naturist, people get confused as to what that actually means and might make assumptions.

"I'm just happy that we've had the event accepted and I hope to bring many more events somewhat similar in the future, and just open up the place for people to be able to come and experience and feel safe doing so."

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