4 days ago
Columbus music festival raises noise concerns
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The two-day Breakaway Music Festival wrapped up Saturday night, bringing tens of thousands of people to the Historic Crew Stadium, but its impact was felt across several central Ohio neighborhoods with concerns over noise, resulting in a social media storm.
'It was definitely a shocker because we were convinced it was a house on the street, maybe a car that was parked there, something nearby, and for us to have to drive over a mile away to find the source of the noise was ridiculous,' resident Luke King said.
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NBC4 received several emails and phone calls with noise concerns surrounding the festival; residents as far as Grove City claimed they felt their homes shaking from the music Friday night.
'A couple weeks ago at the Sonic Temple, we could hear that a little bit, too, but this one just took it to a different level,' resident John Ubbing said.
Residents took to social media Friday night to express their frustrations surrounding the loud music. Some Facebook posts read, 'I can hear Breakaway fest from my house six miles away in Merion Village. I'm not old enough to be this mad about loud music at night,' and 'So that's what it is. Its been driving me insane all evening.'
'We were coming back from dinner, it must've been about 7 (p.m.), and we could hear boom, boom, boom, really strong bass,' resident Wayne Trakas-Lawlor said.
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According to residents, the normally quiet German Village was anything but that Friday night.
'What concerned us the most is it was so loud, it was shaking our house,' King said. 'So we decided we'll call the non-emergency number to file a noise complaint and then, of course, they want to know where the noise is coming from so, I walked down the street to find out which house was bumping this music for five hours all day long and made it all the way to Livingston. I could still hear it, I could still feel it and I still couldn't see it.'
Parents in the area said the Breakaway Music Festival was a nuisance, especially when trying to put their kids to bed.
'We had to kind of turn our sound machines up to try and turn that off,' Ubbing said.
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Breakaway Music Festival organizers shared the following statement regarding the noise concerns:
While our music festival was originally scheduled to end at 11:00 PM programming was temporarily paused for over an hour due to severe weather. To ensure the safety of our fans, artists, and staff, and with support from the Historic Crew Stadium we made the necessary decision to delay performances, and shelter in place while we closely monitored the storm's progression.
As a result, the event extended beyond our original planned end time. However, we want to reassure our local community that our sound permit allows programming at full volume until midnight, and we continued festival operations within that permitted window, ending at 11:50 PM.
We appreciate our surrounding communities patience and understanding as we prioritized safety while doing our best to deliver fans a positive festival experience.
'If you play music, I can understand going to concerts, but at that time of night, you'd expect it to quiet down a bit,' Trakas-Lawlor said. 'I mean, during the day is fine, I don't have a problem with it.'
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