Kitchener City Council considers turning down volume on Ever After Music Festival
Posted Jan 8, 2018 01:46:19 PM.
Last Updated Jan 9, 2018 06:50:52 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Bylaw officials in Kitchener want an electronic music festival — notorious for its bass-thumping sound — to quiet down this year, but no decision is being made today.
At a committee meeting Monday afternoon, Kitchener city councillors voted to defer a decision on noise levels at the Ever After Music Festival to their full council meeting on Jan. 29, so that city staff can investigate further.
The City’s bylaw division says noise complaints skyrocketed during last June’s event, which brought up to 40,000 festivalgoers to Bingemans. More than 100 of those noise complaints were called in on the Sunday night.
Councillor for the area Scott Davey tells 570 NEWS they measured the intensity of noise from homes near the festival, and want to reduce that noise level.
“Last year we had that limit set at 65 decibels. We discovered that was still way too loud obviously,” says Davey. “We’ve reduced that to 55 decibels. What that really means is the apparent noise that you would hear should be about half as loud from your property as it was last year.”
Bylaw was also suggesting the three-day outdoor concert end at 9 p.m., on the Sunday evening, rather than raging on until 11 p.m., as it has over the last three years.
“So that won’t interfere with people that have to get their kids to bed and those that work early in the morning — that’s one of the big ones.”
A motion by Councillor Bil Ioannidis to push the vote on the recommendations was approved 9-2.
