Promoters Respond To Complaints That Melbourne Festival Was Too Quiet

The organisers of Listen Out festival's Melbourne event have responded to a raft of complaints from punters about what they saw as inadequate sound levels for a music festival by essentially laying responsibility with restrictions placed upon them by the government and state Environmental Protection Agency, as well as mother nature itself.

Faced with an inundation of unhappy punters — with several claiming their home-entertainment devices would be able to generate greater volumes than Melbourne's attendees were treated to in St Kilda at the weekend, not to mention their inability to fart with abandon — and a growing number of people taking their displeasure a step further and calling for refunds, festival staff have broken their silence on social media, pointing the finger at the local noise rules and regulations for the lackluster sound.

In their response to one commenter (who, it should be noted, offered pretty measured criticism in the face of more histrionic peers), organisers explained that the problems arose due to teething issues with being the festival's first time in a new venue, as "there are a number of factors which influence sound volume and can only be predicted to a degree before the event begins".

"All outdoor events are required to comply with EPA sound rules about how loud it can be at nearby residences, and this is affected by complaints, wind direction, traffic and other noise, atmospheric conditions, topography of the surrounding area and so on," organisers wrote.

"The constraints for ticketed events are more stringent than for more community events (like St Kilda festival). At Listen Out … we kept the sound at the maximum it could be within all those constraints, which ended up between 98 & 110 dB at the mixing desks and louder in the dance floor areas close to the stages."

Although the event's organisers maintained that the levels delivered to Catani Gardens at the weekend were "not quiet by everyday standards, we know you want the sound as loud as possible and naturally so do we".

"Now that we have a lot more knowledge about where and how sound at that venue is affected by all the constraints, we will be able to work with the council & our sound consultants to optimise limits, stage and speaker positions, sound baffling and lots of other adjustments.

"We're confident that the sound at Listen Out Melbourne 2016 will be a lot louder."

Here's hoping, then, that the festival has learnt from its misstep and things will be a little easier to hear not just at next year's events but in Brisbane this weekend — although, from the looks of some posts to Listen Out's page, a few punters are more concerned about being able to watch the NRL grand final than hearing the music anyway.

Read our review of Listen Out Melbourne here.

For more information about this week's event, see the Festivals tab.