Organisers of a food festival set to be held later this month have made their case to be allowed to sell alcohol and play live music in a quiet village.

The Crown Pub in Cookham wants to hold a chicken wings festival on the village moor on August 31. Organisers made their case to councillors at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council after a neighbour raised noise fears.

Nick Billinghurst from the Thames Valley Pub Company told councillors he hoped the festival would ‘wing over’ villagers. He also said the event would raise money for Maidenhead children’s charity the Link Foundation.

He said: “The theme for this is very much food festival meets village fete.”

He added that the organisers take licensing rules – including noise restrictions – very seriously.

It comes after a neighbour raised noise concerns about the event. In an email to the council the neighbour said: “Everyone knows outdoor music events push the boundaries and is unnecessarily loud.

“The event should only be approved for one year (as any such event should be) to avoid the open-ended licence that snowballs and can’t be restrained.”

The objector also suggested that the line-up of acts advertised – including DJ Pat Sharp and Bon Jovi and Queen tribute acts – and the price meant the event was more of a concert than a food festival.

They said: “I see early bird tickets are £22 for four chicken wings and a chance to play bingo. No one pays that for chicken wings and bingo, so I reach the logical conclusion that the music concert is not ‘ancillary’ but a primary part of the proposition.”

The neighbour argued that the noise should be kept at a level that they wouldn’t be able to hear from their home 320 metres away.

Mr Billinghurst said the sound systems for the music and cooking demonstration stages would be small enough ‘to fit in the boot of a car’.

He said: “This is a food festival and although we are having music it is an ancillary element to it.”

Mr Billinghurst made his case at a hearing of the council’s licensing and public space protection order sub-committee on Wednesday, August 7.

Councillor Neil Knowles asked licensing officers whether there were any potential problems with the event that couldn’t be addressed with conditions places on its licence.

The council’s chief licensing officer Craig Hawkings replied that no relevant authority had objected to the festival.

He said: “If there were problems with that area or locality you would have thought that the responsible authorities would have objected. We can see environmental protection have not objected in relation to noise nuisance or disturbance.”

The councillors on the sub-committee have until Wednesday, August 14, to announce their decision.