Beats on the Beach at Pembroke on Saturday.

MUCH of the trouble at Beats on the Beach on Saturday night could have been avoided if the police had not shut it down, according to Matt Greening, one of the organisers.

He believed the decision to close down the event at the Mirage, Pembroke, attended by 600 people led to more problems than if it had been allowed to carry on without the required licence.

‘A lot of the trouble seemed to kick off after it was shut down. You can imagine what it’s like with drunken people and in total darkness. I can’t be sure, but there might have been less trouble if they had let the event carry on,’ he said.

However, Mr Greening did admit that the licence was something about which he and the other organisers had been mistaken. ‘We phoned the police a couple of times and they told us it would be no problem, but it would probably have been sorted out if we had written to them instead,’ he said.