BRACING FOR A BARRAGE OF SOUND

As Montreal’s summer music festival season ramps up, residents of St-Lambert are once again bracing for an onslaught of sound from Jean-Drapeau Park. The perennial conflict between the South Shore municipality and the concert promoters who stage profitable multi-day music bonanzas like Osheaga, Heavy Montréal and Île Soniq escalated this year, ending up in court. Last week, the city of St-Lambert lost a last-minute bid for an injunction that would have seen the volume turned way down, possibly resulting in the cancellation of four festivals and losses of $24.5 million for homegrown promoter Evenko. In her 15-page decision, Judge Chantal Corriveau concluded that, all things considered, granting the injunction would have put Evenko and its partners (which include the city of Montreal and the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau) in an unacceptable situation.

The music fans who flock to Montreal’s island oasis each summer are a boon to the local economy. Over half of them come from outside Montreal, bringing plenty of tourism dollars with them. Shutting down a series of popular festivals enjoyed by more than 250,000 people annually would make little sense.

But while complete silence is unrealistic in an urban setting, the people who live just a few hundred metres away have every right to be frustrated. The municipal sound limit for St-Lambert is 50 decibels, but the levels from Jean-Drapeau Park have, according to a report commissioned by the city and produced by engineering firm SNC-Lavalin last year,

It is high time for the city of Montreal to be more proactive.

sometimes reached 68 decibels, close to the level of a vacuum cleaner.

It’s enough to disrupt sleep and force people off their lawns and out of their backyard pools. The neighbourhoods across the water predate the festivals, and simply telling people to get over it and shut their windows every weekend for a month is unfair — especially at a time of year when most of us want to get outside and enjoy the warm weather. St-Lambert has been reasonable, asking only that sound not exceed 60 decibels after 7 p.m. That’s comparable to the constant hum of an air conditioning unit.

Last year, Osheaga director Jacques Aubé said the festival had spent $150,000 on measures to better control the noise, including moving soundboards closer to the stage. It was a good start. Evenko declined to provide the Montreal Gazette with a specific list of its sound-reduction measures for 2015, so it’s difficult to gauge whether the promoter is still doing its part to find an appropriate middle ground. But whatever Evenko’s approach, it is high time for the city of Montreal to be more proactive.

Reinstating decibel limits for concerts held in Jean-Drapeau Park — which were completely eliminated last summer by the Ville-Marie borough — is one potential solution. In the wake of SNC-Lavalin’s report, municipal officials in StLambert also suggested rearranging the stages, or erecting sound barriers around parts of the park during the summer months.

This conflict is not going away. Another court challenge could easily be brought ahead of next year’s festivals; Corriveau suggested that if St-Lambert had sought the injunction a few months ago rather than at the last minute, it might well have been granted. The risk of losing these festivals if nothing changes is therefore significant.

For everyone’s sake, Montreal must prove itself a good neighbour and work to implement workable solutions in time for the summer of 2016.