Campaigners are ready to launch legal action as they fight to stop Wireless Festival being held in Finsbury Park.

The Friends of Finsbury Park group wants to take Haringey Council to the High Court after it approved the controversial festival last month. The park is just outside the Islington boundary,

Last Monday, it launched an online fundraising campaign to pay for the £35,000 legal costs for a one-day hearing. This morning, it had already raised £6,140, nearly enough to pay for initial proceedings.

The Friends group has been campaigning against the festival, scheduled for July 8 to July 10, after the trouble that marred last year’s event.

It is acting against “privatisation of green spaces” and said: “Last year’s Wireless attracted crowds of 50,000 per day causing massive disruption, damage, excessive noise, and anti-social behaviour in surrounding streets.

“The fence of a local school playground had to be wrapped in protective plastic as festival goers were urinating through it while children were in school.

“We are not against Wireless in itself, but its sheer size and scale is totally inappropriate to Finsbury Park. We are happy to see events staged that are more inclusive of the local community.”

A Haringey spokeswoman has said measures are already under way to prevent disruption.

The campaign is at crowdjustice.co.uk/case/save-finsbury-park/