Hotline set up for music festival
Bands have thrashed, crashed and wailed since 2007 at the annual Rock on the Range music festival at Crew Stadium — three days of sights and sounds that thrill concertgoers but leave some nearby residents unamused.
Too loud, they say. Too much profanity filtering from the speakers onstage into their neighborhoods.
So stadium management
Stadium officials said they’ll meet with community leaders after the festival to discuss complaints.
has agreed to accept calls from residents concerned about noise at the rock show, which opens today and runs through Sunday.
Crew Stadium general man-
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ager Ryan Smith said people who call will be asked to leave their name, phone number, address and the reason for the call. He said the phone number is 614-447-4267, although that number was not in service as of yesterday.
Stadium managers decided to set up the hotline after meeting with University District leaders last week.
“It’s not that Rock on the Range is going away,” Smith said. “What we’re trying to do is be a good neighbor.”
But Smith acknowledged that he can’t do much about the loudness. “We try to direct sound to keep it in our bowl,” he said. “Is the noise going to be here three days? Yes, it is.”
Instead, Smith said, stadium management will meet with community leaders after the festival and discuss what types of phone calls were received.
The sound from the show, which will feature about 20 bands on three stages each of the days, reaches not only the neighboring University District but also Italian Village, North and South Linden and Clintonville, said Doreen Uhas Sauer, who leads the University Area Commission and met with Crew Stadium management.
The noise from Rock on the Range came up at a recent community meeting, she said.
“Someone made the remark they’d like to hear their neighbor’s lawn mower over the concert,” said Sauer, who said she can hear the shows from her home.
Pasquale Grado, president of the University Community Association, also met with stadium officials.
“We are very hopeful about the relationship that we’ve established with the Crew, and the fact that they are so willing to sit down with us and work with us,” Grado said.
Columbus Police Lt. Ty Brust has worked each Rock on the Range and will lead special-duty officers this weekend at the concert, which will feature dozens of acts, including Guns N’ Roses, Slayer and Kid Rock. He said the concert has a curfew to end the music by midnight tonight and by 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Rock on the Range has become an annual three-day festival since the first gathering in May 2007. It’s expected to draw 38,000 people a day.
“For three days I know it’s an inconvenience, but it’s a good event for the city,” Smith said.