AN explosive meeting saw North Hinksey residents tear apart festival organisers who kept them in the dark about a 3,000-capacity music event in the village.

"This is May Day" is an inaugural music event boasting a line up of drum and bass artists, set to arrive in the fields at Oxford Rugby Club on Saturday, April 30.

The festival is being planned by Eleven 11 Events, the same team that organised the failed OxfordOxford festival for South Park in 2014, cancelled at the last minute due to poor ticket sales.

The company applied for an event licence from Vale of White Horse District Council in March, but residents were only informed two weeks before thousands of over-18s were set to descend on the village.

In a bid to calm rising tempers in South and North Hinksey, organisers held a public meeting on Wednesday night.

Cries of "hang your heads in shame" and "this whole thing is a shambles" were hurled across the room as it was revealed the event could be an annual occurrence with a capacity of 4,999.

One North Hinksey resident said: "You say you have 25 years of organising all these wonderful events... so how on earth have you not spoken to the village about this?

"You could have spoken to us either before you applied for your licence or during your application.

"And because of the way this has been handled the believability of your reassurances is in tatters - we do not have any confidence in any of the statements you have made."

Although notices advertising the music event had been displayed around the perimeter of the rugby club, residents only became aware of the eight-hour event when letters from the club were posted through their doors on Monday.

Residents also raised concerns about the 300 taxis and minibuses which will be diverted through South Hinksey as they ferry people to and from the event.

Eleven 11 events director Owen Kent, a graduate of Oxford Brookes University, said: "We applied for the licence for the event through the Vale of White Horse and met with members of Safety Advisory Group and we satisfied all their boxes for running the event.

"The music is going to stop at 10pm and then we are having marshals all through South Hinksey village to direct the taxis and mini buses which will pick everyone up.

"We have made it clear that no vehicles will be travelling through North Hinksey as we will have fencing put up around the rugby club so there is only one entry and exit."

Rugby club chairman David Bagnall said: "We wanted this to be an event for the community and we needed it to raise money for the club.

"We're all volunteers here and we have more than 200 youngsters who train.

"Notices were put up about this event three to four months ago."