Ever After organizers say they will ignore decision of Kitchener City Council
Posted Feb 2, 2018 04:49:04 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It could be a longer Ever After music festival than expected this year.
Despite orders from Kitchener City Council telling the EDM festival to wrap up by 9 PM on Sunday, organizer Gabriel Mattacchione tells 570’s The Mike Farwell Show he won’t compromise his event, and will run the show Sunday night as planned.
“I am not going to compromise the experience of 30,000 plus people, 70 per cent are travelling into the city and not living in the Tri-cities, for a hundred complaints on one weekend.”
The city’s bylaw division says noise complaints skyrocketed during last June’s event, which brought up to 40,000 festival goers to Bingemans.
In response, council approved a significant decrease in allowable noise levels coming out of the venue from 65 to 55 db, which experts say should result in a 50 per cent quieter weekend for residents.
While organizers say new technology should make for a quieter festival this year, disagreement remains over when the 3 day concert should end.
Mattacchione says he doesn’t believe the EDM festival has been treated fairly, suggesting the city doesn’t share the same taste in music.
“They are singling out Ever After because of the genre it is. There are other things that go on in the region that go past the 9 PM suggestion they have tabled in council. So yeah, they are singling out EDM.”
Mattacchione adds a 9 PM would rob concert goers of the best possible experience for a show largely dependent on visual displays.
“It is a lot of light, so if you are only going to get a half hour of darkness, it is not the full experience of even what the artist wants to do.”
Mattacchione also posted the following statement to Facebook:
