In the wake of controversy surrounding last weekend’s Melbourne leg of the Good Vibrations festival tour, which saw many punters not impressed with wavering sound levels at the event during headline performances, the tour’s organisers Jam were prompted to release an official statement on Thursday, explaining the situation from their perspective.
If you were at Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday February 9th and wondered why the sound seemed so erratic at points during the day, have a read of the below to find out just how serious the situation could have been. The Environmental Protection Authority’s threat to ‘pull the plug’ on the entire event was, understandably, enough to have organisers compromise sound quality at the festival.
Media reports indicate that Jam were forced to turn down the sound 25 times throughout the day, with the Melbourne Age running a story today that voiced the opinion of incensed local residents. One even went so far as to suggest that festivals should no longer take place at the Bowl. “It’s OK for something like Carols by Candlelight, but with these concerts, there are so many people living in the inner city now, maybe they should move bigger concerts out to Flemington.”
With many of Melbourne’s most favoured summer events happening at the Myer Music Bowl, including Summadayze, Future Music Festival and Good Vibrations, the latest round of noise complaints is certainly a serious issue for festival organisers.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT – Thursday, 14 February, 2008
In response to reports in the media over the past few days, Jam Music (the promoter of the Good Vibrations Festivals) wants it to be known that the sound levels at Saturday’s Good Vibrations Festival held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl were under the direction of the venue, not the promoter. Sound levels are monitored and policed by an independent contractor hired by the venue who in turn instructs the promoter. The venue’s licence to hold amplified music events is regulated by the Environmental Protection Authority.
During the event, Jam received two noise level warnings from the venue and was put on notice that any further exceedance of the prescribed sound level would result in the power being cut and the Festival stopped. In addition to these formal warnings, Jam was told on over 25 separate occasions to turn the system levels down. On each occasion Jam complied with these instructions.
The sound system used at the Good Vibrations Festival in Melbourne on Saturday was identical to that used at the Festival last year, but the levels permitted by the venue were significantly lower than previous years.
Jam Music acted upon each of these instructions and warnings and was conscious of the venue’s threat to cut the power, especially when the final threat to “pull the plug” was made in the middle of Kanye West’s tribute song to his recently deceased mother. Jam believed the only way to ensure that the Festival continued until its scheduled finish time was to reduce the level of the speakers that fed sound to the top of the hill.
The Good Vibrations Festival’s ethos is always to give their audience a great time and the best possible experience. Unfortunately, due to the heavy handed interpretation of the EPA rules by the venue, Jam did not have the unfettered ability & control to do this in Melbourne last Saturday.
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