David Michael Miller
Madison’s neighborhood music festival community is fuming over proposed changes to the rules and fee structure for using amplified sound in Madison parks.
Under current policy, all amplification permits for city parks are $100 regardless of event type or duration. That means an afternoon family barbeque with a sound system pays the same as a multi-day music festival like La Fete de Marquette.
A proposal to be discussed at the Board of Park Commissioners meeting Wednesday night, would charge users a daily fee and breaks the permit structure into three categories ranging in price from $50 to $150 per day. The proposal also places limits on the decibel level and the times of day it can operate, providing an option to purchase “additional hours.”
“This is a huge negative,” says Bob Queen, a longtime neighborhood music festival organizer. His main concern is the 85 decibel limitation -- a requirement he says is “pretty much unattainable” based on the current festival staging setups and musical offerings.
“A uniform policy for all musical events?” he says. “It seems silly to allow that.”
Parks Superintendent Eric Knepp, whose division helped draft the proposal, says the new rules stem from a “multi-year discussion” about the way the city handles public amplification permit fees and the use of amplified sound in city parks. City officials looked to communities like Austin, Texas and Portland, Ore. when crafting the proposed regulations and engaged with “concerned residents” as well as festival organizers to gather input on the policy.
“This is about coming up with a standard,” Knepp says.
Knepp points out that the proposal would not impact “street use events” such as Live On King Street, Ironman events or the Madison Marathon. He says the current fee structure does not cover the costs, including overtime, that his department incurs when dispatching park rangers to regulate the events.
During the 2015 neighborhood festival season, the parks department ramped up sound monitoring efforts as a “trial run” for the proposed change. Knepp believes the new system is fair, but expected backlash. He says despite the fears about the new sound limits, most festivals the parks division monitored this year were within the 85 decibel level.
“I’m a firm believer in compromise to make an effective public policy,” Knepp says. “It is my sincere belief that this will be a very difficult issue to ever come to a full compromise where everyone feels good about it.”
David Wallner, chair of the Parks Commission, says city officials have been dealing with complaints from residents about festivals for several years and that the commission has spent time determining “what is reasonable without damaging the festivals.”
Marquette neighborhood resident Truly Remarkable Loon, who is a professional juggler, is one of those concerned about noise from the Orton Park Festival. Though it’s a four-day event, Loon says that the setup and teardown stretch the disturbance out to as many as 10 days. He believes the festival has outgrown its original roots as a neighborhood event and has morphed into an “international music festival.”
“A big part of the festival is to socialize,” he says. “I can’t talk over 100 decibels.”
Madison’s neighborhood music festivals are a point of pride for many in the community. Beyond providing free, high-quality entertainment and a place to gather with friends and neighbors, they offer a space for local restaurants and merchants to do business, raise thousands for community organizations and make the neighborhoods desirable places to live and work.
Lynn Lee, president of the Marquette Neighborhood Association, recognizes the importance of respecting neighbors bothered by noise but emphasizes the community impact of Madison’s beloved music festivals. The Orton Park Festival, which turned 50 this year, is a major fundraiser for MNA along with the Waterfront Festival.
“We have the largest budget of any neighborhood association, and it’s due to these festivals,” he says. “As they’ve grown, we’ve seen a direct result of the neighborhood doing better.”
The proceeds from La Fete de Marquette provide about 25% of the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center’s nearly $500,000 operating budget, says Gary Kallas, executive director.
“That’s a significant chunk of change,” he says. “The importance of [La Fete] to keeping the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center up and running is extremely important.”
Under the proposed fee structure, the permit for La Fete would increase in cost from $100 to $1,700, Kallas says -- no small amount for a fundraiser run by volunteers.
Kallas empathizes with the “few folks” who are bothered by noise since La Fete moved to Central Park from its former spot at the corner of South Dickinson Street and East Washington Avenue. But he says many people he’s talked to in the neighborhood have no problems with the festival.
“One time a year, at La Fete de Marquette, we promote the notion of an event that adults can attend and stay out late on a summer night,” he says. “The event itself does so much good in terms of placemaking, community building and bringing people together around song and dance.”
Rökker, the publisher of Maximum Ink magazine and an organizer of Atwood Fest, says he’s never heard complaints about his stage noise, even though Atwood is one of the city’s largest festivals and is located in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
In fact, Rökker thinks the festival is a little too quiet.
“I wish our stage was louder,” he says. “I would really rather them turn it up a bit.”
