Anger over concert noise

Bay Dreams musical festival. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tauranga City Council will today investigate whether a Mount Maunganui music festival adhered to resource consent conditions after it sparked more than 40 complaints from residents.

The Bay Dreams Festival was held at ASB Baypark Stadium on Saturday and attracted thousands of people despite poor weather. Headline acts included drum and bass stars Pendulum, DJ Premier, Concord Dawn and David Dallas.

Complaints were made from people living as far away as Welcome Bay.

Welcome Bay resident Bruce Graham said he had put up with the noise for most of the day.

Mr Graham said noise from racing vehicles, demolition derbies and stock cars racing did not bother him but the extremely high volume of sound of the "so-called music being played" did.

Mr Graham said he spent much of his day in his garage working on a woodwork project but still noticed the music.

"I live at Welcome Bay, which measures just over seven kilometres from Bay Park, as the crow flies.

"As it was, above the whine of my electric saw, and with grade 4 earmuffs on, I could still hear the 'dum-dum, dumma-dum' of the robotic drums associated with a lot of modern 'music'."

Mr Graham said after his evening meal he called the council to complain but was told the organisers had a permit.

Tauranga City Council manager of environmental monitoring Andrew McMath said as of yesterday afternoon, its call centre received 43 calls.

Complaints were also received by Bay Venues through their own channels, Mr McMath said.

The council was now investigating whether Bay Dreams was in compliance with the conditions of the resource consent granted, he said.

A full investigation would begin today.

Bay Venues chief executive Gary Dawson said he was aware of four to five calls to the complaint line plus phone calls from residents, asking when the music would finish, who did not appear to have any issue with the concert ending at 10.30pm.

"When you are going to have an outdoor concert there is going to be a lot of noise," Mr Dawson said.

"We have 5000 people there on a rainy night. There's demand for this kind of thing."

Mr Dawson said the Bay Venues team would provide the council with its noise reports from the concert.

Bay Dreams organiser Pato Alvarez declined to comment.