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Road closures from Purley to South Croydon for MattsBBQ

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Mini-Glastonbury: MattsBBQ have been staging events like this since 2012. On Saturday, they are hoping for 6,000 party-goers at Purley Way playing fields

A mile-long stretch of Pampisford Road between South Croydon and Purley, plus Waddon Way and other residential side roads on the Waddon Estate, are to be closed to traffic all day on Saturday, because someone called Matt is having a barbeque…

MattsBBQ is a major event organiser, specialising in staging music festival-style events featuring an array of DJs, and drawing huge crowds.

This Saturday, MattsBBQ is taking place on the Purley Way playing fields, alongside the A23, with significant traffic disruption expected. The organisers are hoping for as many as 6,000 attendees at what they call “the world’s biggest BBQ”.

No such thing as a free drink: top-priced tickets for Saturday are £156

No information about the road closures, or the event, can be found on the council’s own website.

Croydon Council granted a licence to the organisers, with the local police raising no objections.

Pampisford Road is to be closed to traffic, except residents, from 9am until 11pm on July 2, with similar restrictions apply on other streets around the playing fields.

Residents of the affected roads were supposed to receive special passes to use on the day, though Inside Croydon is aware that not all residents have received their pass.

By lunchtime today, the Matts BBQ site on the playing fields appears to be close to ready, with a section walled off, while inside the area a few tents and stages can be seen, and one not-very-big Big Top.

Tickets for the event range from £34.50 to £156 for “VIPs”.

These offer “VIP entry”, “complimentary food” (giving a new meaning to the use of “complimentary”, given the price of the tickets), “Hair and beauty stations for ladies and gents”, and even “VIP toilets”. Which is nice.

The organisers claim that they are “taking over 100+ acres at the Purley Playing Fields!”, which might be stretching the point a little, since the playing fields only comprise 109 acres in total, and what appears to be the MattsBBQ site is only a fraction of that.

MattsBBQ’s own bumpf says of their Purley Way event, “Expect the biggest vibes across three arenas. The glorious Main Stage, the bass thumping House and Garage big top tent, the Soca and Afrobeats real sand beach, and a VIP area where you are looked after from the moment you step in.”

They call it “The ultimate party”, with generous use of hashtags and spelling out “ultimate” in capitals.

The organisers really did begin with a family barbeque in Matt Robinson’s mother’s garden, expanding into a summer event business in 2012.

They say that this year “sees MattsBBQ coming home”.

This is not the first “mini-Glastonbury” music event to be staged in one of Croydon’s parks and open spaces since covid – Garage Nation organised a large-scale festival in Addington Park last year which passed off with relatively little trouble, even according to the most sceptical of Addington villagers, although inevitably there were issues over some illegal parking.

Concerns have been raised ahead of Matt having his barbecue on Purley Way playing fields, though, especially over the lack of communication from the council.

“I live locally and the first I heard about it was yesterday, when I was told that part of Goodwin Road will be closed to traffic,” one resident told Inside Croydon.

“I walked over the fields to find a corner being taped off and barrier fences erected.

“We were not consulted about this by the council, another example of the contempt in which we are held by this council.”

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