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The Law Regarding Mumming Plays
In 2005 the Government amended the Entertainment Licence law and in doing so it unfortunately made the local licensing authorities aware that, amongst other things,Mumming would need to be licensed. Unfortunately the performance of a Mummers play by it’s very nature i.e. persons acting a part or character and the musical accompaniment there of, having been previously licensable under the Theatres Act 1968 was treated as the same under the new law. The Potterne Mummers we, for the first year carried on as usual, as did hundreds of mumming groups across the country, not realising that we were in fact breaking the law. The Kennet District Council Licensing Officer brought this to our attention in 2006 and as such we could only perform our ancient play in Pubs and venues that had the section “Performance of a Play” included on their license. We are only aware of around 10 pubs in the whole of the county that have this
facility and in our area just 3. In order for us to perform our play each venue would have to obtain a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) that has a cost of £21 and ten clear days prior to the event. Very few pubs would consider this worth their time and expense so we are left in a pretty daft situation. It is possible for Pubs to have their license amended but the current cost for this, even to just tick a single box to allow “the Performance of a play”, is between £100 & £630 depending on the size of the venue. So, where we are at the moment is not entirely clear. We will continue to lobby government to reduce the cost of minimal amendments (call us for details on this) or just keep on trying to get Landlords to put in TENs. If you feel strongly about our plight please contact your local MP and tell him or her. We do have some support for this problem in Parliament but the more support we can get the better chance we
have of success. Thank You
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