A beach film weekend expected to draw 40,000 people is going ahead despite safety concerns following Fatboy Slim's party.

Problems of overcrowding and safety forced the cancellation of the Channel 4 T4 beach dance party on Brighton seafront planned for this coming Sunday.

Police were caught out by the huge crowds at Fatboy's party on Saturday and they now have concerns about all free outdoor events.

They were meeting with city council bosses today but it is expected the Stella Screen film event will proceed as planned.

A spokesman for the organisers said: "The news at the moment is that our weekend will go ahead."

He said a maximum of 20,000 people were expected at each of the two performances and visitors would be sitting down rather than dancing.

The hit Moulin Rouge is due to be shown on the open-air screen on July 26 and Quadrophenia, partly shot in Brighton, on July 27.

The city council today stressed the importance of keeping beach events alive.

Ian Duncan, the council's culture spokesman, said people should keep what happened on Saturday in perspective.

He said: "The city hosts many large outdoor events each year - Party in the Park, Pride, Zap Street Festival and so on. These are free to residents and visitors and are part of what makes this city a wonderful place.

"They are also vital to our economy. Following the collapse of the traditional bucket and spade holidays, Brighton and Hove has survived and prospered where other seaside places have decayed.

"We have done this by responding positively to changing fashions.

"Clearly, the council, police and ambulance services need to learn the lessons from the Fatboy Slim event.

"We are meeting to do that but our aim is to maintain our reputation for managing large events safely."

Inspector Kevin Claxton, in charge of planning for events for the city's police, confirmed there were concerns about future beach events.

He has studied large events elsewhere, including Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations which are free but ticket-only.

Fencing and ticketing could be the way forward for future large-scale gigs like Saturday's beach party.

He said he might not have objections to future Fatboy-type gigs providing precautions, planning and resources were adequate but he never wanted to see another night like last Saturday.

He said: "We have never experienced scenes like it before and we had no reason to expect it was going to be so big based on previous years' experiences.

"We were tremendously lucky there were no major incidents during the event."

Mr Claxton, who was heavily involved in policing the Fatboy Slim gig, said only luck prevented serious incidents.