Music Festival News

The 3 day Sunburn festival in Goa struck a blow this year when the police closed it down for playing the music to loud. The music was recorded at 83 decibels when the council restricted it to 55 decibels. The festival was reopened after organisers made a payment to the local council! Sounds like a bribe to be but the party went on.

Afterwards the organisers were unhappy with the restrictions put in place arguing that across Europe concerts and festivals often reach 110 decibels, A person speaking loudly can reach 50 decibels so the 55 decibel restriction imposed was far to low especially taking into account that all the music is turned off at 10pm.

Noise restrictions are are a common problem in festivals even in the UK with many festivals being held by their licence to regulate the noise coming from the sound systems. One complaint of 2008 for many festivals was what seemed like reduced sound levels in the arenas at several festivals.