Ten hours of 'thumping bass music' pouring out of a business festival disturbed residents at the weekend.

On Saturday Ongar played host to Zen Fest, a music and clothing festival organised by business partners Sam Cottrell and Stefan Poelman along with James Stacey.

Prior to the event Mr Cottrell - who is the son of the Bishop of Chelmsford - expressed concerns that they were holding a rave.

He said: "We are not.

"We are hard-working young entrepreneurs wanting to gather young people together to promote our businesses and have a good time."

Despite the 23 year-old's assurances, some of those seeking a relaxing time between 12pm and 10pm in Ongar on Saturday were less than impressed.

Roberta Abbott, of Mill Grove, said: "After almost 10 hours of non-stop loud electronic, thumping bass music reverberating through our village would anyone call this Zen Fest event today a business festival?

"This was a rave exactly as those High Ongar residents who questioned Epping Forest District Council's granting of the event licence had predicted."

Mrs Abbott expressed frustration at the licensing process and the location of the festival.

She added: "Representations were made to the council after we had been informed about the event by letter from the organisers.

"But it was to no avail. High Ongar residents were powerless to do anything - the licence had been granted and could not be revoked.

"No prior consultation of residents had been made, nor is necessary apparently.

"In our opinion a field adjacent to the church, in the centre of a village where every house would be affected, was a completely inappropriate site."

The festival organisers did not respond to a request for comment.

A Council spokesperson said: “The event operated under a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) that was issued by the Council after no objections were received about the application. This gave the organiser permission to carry out licensable activities including the sale of alcohol and the playing of music within a specific timeframe.

“A copy of each TEN application is sent to Essex Police and the Council’s Environment and Neighbourhoods team, who are given 3 working days to object if there are concerns relating to the licensing objectives. In this case, no objections were received and the information given to the Council prior to this event suggested no reason why it should not go ahead.

“The Council did receive complaints on Saturday evening and our noise officer attended a nearby property to check the noise levels. These were found to be below the accepted guideline levels for a one off event of this nature, which allow for some disturbance for a limited period, however the event organisers agreed to turn the music down despite this.”