Crazy Noisy

What time did the (loud) music actually stop?

The music stopped before 11:00 p.m., which I believe was a condition of the permit, although the crazy traffic, noise, yelling and screaming, etc. continued well into the night.

You do live downtown. Mosts cities have loud street noise all hours. For me the noise of garbage and recycling trucks early in the morning where I live is a tradeoff for the all the benefits of living downtown (not in Charlottetown). What’s the alternative? Limit hours and effectively force the special events and bars out of the downtown core? That doesn’t help strengthen downtown business. But it would help to encourage car-centric suburbia.

I have to disagree on the concert. Altough I personally can’t stand any one of the acts that performed for the week end (Haywire aside, that’s a whole different ball park), I think it was a great idea. It promoted celebration, tourism, and all around good times. However, I do agree with the levels of noise and ongoing partying that go with such events, as well as the summer on the water front. There needs to be more enforcement. I live up by the univeristy and so I know what it’s like. Not only is summer loud, but so it all year round. I’ve gotten used to it though, and I can brush it off.. However, some of the local elderly person’s have not, it’s a bit much. I can certainly image that Stratford heard much of the concert last night. Sound travels over water, I’m glad it was them and not me. I heard just enough being up in my neck of the woods, let alone being right there. No one should ever force Nickelback on anyone.. that’s just cruel. We could get better acts.. Hello.. “Guess Who”.

Dave, there’s a big jump from “Lennie Gallant in a tent” one year to “cross-Canada rock concert on TV” the next year to “major rock concert with thousands of people” this year.

One point to be made in support of Peter’s position is the unique lack of distance between homes and the chosen location. In Halifax the side of the citidel is buffered by the Commons, the Public Gardens, business property, etc. The north end is buffered by the hill itself. In Ottawa, these things are always around Parliament, the Astrolab or the National Art gallery where no one otherwise walks at night. Is what Charlottetown is doing stunned more due to the location rather than the event? Stick it at UPEI next time and set up shuttles.

Our worst weekend was the one where about 8am on Sunday having got to sleep at about 4, a “Come to Jesus” folk Rock group held an early morning concert. The police were great and hustled them away. UPEI has great parking and open fields where tents and sound stages could be set up. Not that many fogies live up there.

Lana: I meant a distance in Ottawa from Parliament comparative to the distance from the Nickleback concert to Ruk’s house. Sure there are the streets in the market, etc., but that would be somewhere out about Belvedere in C’town. I call Astrolab the open air concert setting behind the Art Gallery with the statue of Champlain holding his astrolab up in the air. You are right with the Bluesfest and the north end of the Glebe - but as I am going to see Elvis Costello there Saturday, I don’t care. If Charlottetown could draw him who would care? And Sussex Drive is kind of a hole in a “fat city” kind of way - far too many tax dollars spent on far too few citizens, middle and senior bureaucrats strolling at lunch. Made me retink the meaning of “equalization” when I first saw it.

Alan you need better Ottawa geography. Downtown public servants “stroll” on Sparks Street (which is the real hole of the city) or in lovely Hull (now Gatineau). The money going in to Sussex (from Rideau to say the Art Gallery) is coming from the US Embassy who now pays to block one of the lanes off. You don’t need to lecture me on distances in Charlottetown. Longtime friends the Rankins live directly facing onto Confederation Park, so spare me the contest on ‘who lives closest to the park’.

I’m surprised you can fit a hat on your inflated head.

After months of self-imposed silence (for which I’m sure everyone is eternally grateful) I gots to weigh in on this annually recurring issue. I live downtown and I’m quite prepared to share the experience for a few days with everyone who wishes to come to this festival. Its great for Charlottetown, well organized and improving every year. As witnessed by the buzz (my kids were very excited by NB’s appearance) and attendance, hundreds throw themselves into the organization of the event, thousands of Charlites, Islanders, Tourists and CFA’s attend and have a great time. Its good for the waiters, waitresses, business owners and civic governements; and it only lasts for a few days. The organizers have bent over backwarsd to accommadate the local neighbiourhoods. It would not work at UPEI. Shuttle buses for 8,000 is not a workable plan for any number of reasons. I must ask the question of you Peter “Were it Fred Eaglesmith, amps at 11 in front of the masses, would you be so churlish?”

Communities need some basic ingredients; yeah, ingredients sounds like a good word for now. Clearly among societal ingredients, those which produce entertainment or economic activity seem to cause the most fuss. I recall numerous spats on this topic making it to the news. A few years ago Catherine MacKinnon wanted a play house and was resisted, the “Public Gatherings Act” (or whatever it was called) remains one of PEI’s most curious and darkest moments, and there are plenty of other examples. Pushed up against what some want to do is an equal and opposite reaction. Stoking the boiler for the “no” side is a strange and wonderful phenomenon. See, it’s almost as if people are beamed to a parallel universe the moment they give birth or have caused someone else to do so. In this new universe, everything which gave meaning to their lives as youth is now “revealed” for its ability to stab menacingly at the unprotected underbelly of family / church / community / neighbourhood (pick any one or make up a dozen of your own). Geezuz, my father (still tougher’n a boil’d owl) and his mates went to slap Hitler around and did some living along the way; fast forward a few years and these guys end up reminding draft-age teenagers to “look both ways”. I’ve done this and my kids will too. It won’t change. It is a mark of maturity when a person can act contrary to his or her own best interests in a given situation for the betterment of another. It’s an act of courage when it’s done to benefit a community, and marks pure guts if done by a businessperson. Collectively we’re simply not that mature. As a group; we’re immature. I think that bears repeating. We identify with our own cohort and we’re listened to only when speaking in support of it. Those who want it quiet will be pounced upon by other “quieters” if one dares concede “it’s only one day a year…”. Nope, you stick with the cohort, spout the party line, and hold your own or become part of the problem. It removes the possibility for reason you see. Anyway it all comes down to a situation where the (borrowing from a

Lana: apology accepted - however curiously phrased - and Foreign affairs is still a big brown building on Sussex. My hat size remains the same and for me to make reciprocal corporeal observations would be rude and politically incorrect. Put some ice in the old soda.

Tolls… I love it. Alan, enjoy your long walk to the DFAIT building while you’re in Ottawa.

On the City and concert, when would you figure the rock concert series became the way a city celebrates? I would think no earlier than mid-80’s. I know when I was a kid in the early 80’s Halifax was considered dead in the summer until the tall ships festival in ‘84(?). There are great municipal celebrations like First Night in St. John’s and Regatta Day there, too, that are not rock concerts even though they are great social and rather boozy events. Why does the celebrating in Charlottetown have to be a “Molsons presents” kind of thing at all?

To be honest, it’s not the noise that bothers me. It’s that the noise is inflicted on me without consultation, warning, or, more importantly, regard. If the Capital Commission sent out a letter to all downtown residents in mid-June saying something along the lines of “we’re going to be holding a big rock concert over the July 1st weekend, and we know it’s going to inconvenience you, and for that we apologize,” they would reduce my annoyance level by 75%. The late great sports management figure, Mark H. McCormack, has a section in his book Hit the Ground Running where he talks about how to keep track of travel expenses. He suggests providing a complete explanation for anything unusual on your expense report, and says that this pre-emptive move will save a lot of grief in the long run. He’s right about that when it comes to travel expenses, and the notion scales to the rock concert situation too: rather than holding a concert and hoping either that nobody notices, or that the level of complaints don’t get them cut off, the Capital Commission should do the responsible thing, and engage downtown residents in a cooperative planning effort.

Why move it to UPEI? The waterfront is a great place for the event. I could see if this was a year round thing, or even if it took place five times a summer but it’s not! It’s held once a year for 3 days… My god! I live in downtown Halifax close to one of the main the dock yards and I wake up every night from the sound of trains (via rail is one block from my door) and boats to busses and cars. I deal with it and get all the sleep I need.

Alan’s friends both wonder more about his shoe colour than his hat size…

Why is a rock concert inevitable? Are there not better options?

McCormack (Started IMG…that company with the idea to boost marketing by focusing on the fact nobody knows who they are)got his start with golf great Arnold Palmer and participated in a hateful conflict with Jack Nicklaus for many years which was eventually resolved. He also worked with Gary Player and was once considered the most powerful man in sports. His secrets of success, with interesting comments about your first day as the boss.

It was the 8th “Annual” Festival of Lights. That’s pretty decent notice.

The fact is that Charlottetown is ‘Alive’ for one weekend a year, and it happens to be the July 1st celebrations. I suppose, to a lesser extent, people do make the effort to come in town during Old Home Week. While I agree with you Alan, that the city should try to make the downtown citizens more aware, it was very hard to miss the billions of “Festival of Lights” posters around town. Everyone knew what NB/Default was playing, and where they were playing, no offense, but playing ignorant isn’t helping. And for the record, I could hear Blue Rodeo and Jimmy Rankin from my house, which is by the corner of Nassau and North River. “..are there not better options?” I woudl say not, Rock Concerts are fun, and it was proven by the ticket sales this weekend. Canada Day should be fun, I think adding some spice downtown for _one_ weekend out of the year is fair. It IS downtown afterall, where things should happen. The buzz brings in much needed business to local shops, and I have a hard time believing that some people are actually complaining about it. The traffic issues could be addressed, with some makeshift parking lots and shuttles.

Brian: Peter is on about notice. I am not so interested in notice as the choice of the rock concert. I am wondering aloud whether and whither the rock concert (aside from a tour of the landmarks of Ottawa). Rock concerts are fun for folk who like rock concerts minus those who got the crap beaten out of them after by drunks. For others they are not fun. I myself like rock…adn like to rock. I, in fact, rock. But when I rock I do so in a location not to offend - the cottage, the car - unless my goal is to offend. Being a former punk, that is not unimportant. Surely, however, it is acceptable to rock in a way that is inoffensive. Beyond rock, why not an intellegent music concert focus on blues, folk or jazz - all big money makers in other cities. Must we rock as if rock is all we may do? Must we bow to purveyors of rock and the standard rocking plan?

Alan writes that he is rock. Nothing says rock more than a guy who posts 7 times in one day to a site that comes from a province he detests. Move on, Alan, you rocker you. The mouthy one asks “Why a rock concert? Why not blues and jazz or folk?” Because rock concerts pack them in. It’s that simple. We do have good blues and jazz and folk events on the Island (you must have missed those while you were busy writing about how little there is going on here), and they are well attended, but getting a group like Nickelback makes a big splash. I applaud the organizers for making this happen and making it a success. I’m sorry the downtown residents weren’t happy about it, but I knew this was happening months ago. Hell, I’ve had my tickets for months. Doing it at UPEI is classic “not-in-my-backyard,” because there are many people who live out that way as well who would be equally ticked. Next year, I think they should have Alan MacLoud doing readings from his midlifecrisis.com web page. That’ll pack ‘em in. (Side note - you’ve spent a lot of time attacking the province for pestcide problems. I agree they do exist. But I find it funny that someone who does that then writes openly about eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Do you know the crap they pump into those birds? Do you know the conditions they’re kept in? Jason Alexander just ended his KFC endorsement because he finally woke up to the problems. And, hey, I’m sorry you had problems with the service at the KFC. Hopefully you registered the complaints with the maitre d’.)

like all ports, Charlottetown’s waterfront is, and should remain industrial soooo… send all the yuppies, born-agains, savants, whiners, rockers, dopers, freaks, skaters, punkers, tourists, squares, etc. out of there put Canadian National’s trackage and yard back in with the locomotives running 24/7 and the banging of cars being shunted for the boat train, remove the workers comp folks and return the station building to its original purpose, tear down the naval reserve, get rid of Founders Hall and put the car shops back to the way they should be, put the Texaco tank farm back up on the site of the park, ditto for the Esso tank farm, and the Shell tank farm, and put up the Canada Packers slaughterhouse along with the stock pens etc. rip out the tacky tourist traps of Peakes Quay which any visitor from a location marginally larger than Shulie, Nova Scotia (pop. 2) will see that area for what it is. Reinstate in the place of Peakes the old ship yard and mercantile wharves. Rip out the 4-laned Hillsborough River highway bridge, reinstate the old steel truss bridge on the stone piers, get rid of the Harbourside complex and restore those buildings to the warehouses they once were oh, and tear down that godawful waste of architectural talent called the Delta-nee CP-nee Hilton, replace it with the much more interesting and lively waterfront slums and tenements - and send ships in!! lots of ships, lots of potato boats, gravel boats, oil tankers, barges, tugs, ferries, etc. then you will have the port of Charlottetown that it should have stayed as. and you wouldn’t have those pesky concerts playing cheesy music for far-too-easily-entertained mainlanders and locals alike

If the words “Festival of Lights” should mean “noise” in my vocabulary, well, colour me dumb ‘cuz I didn’t get that. Almost everything is advert’s and I, along with so many million others, block out ads. If “We’re having loud Rock music” news articles were reported in the media instead of hiding them in adverts then more of us would be warned. Still, do we do this to celebrate or do we do this for the economy it moves? If it’s to celebrate, then screw the marketing and the commerce. If it’s to move the economy, then let’s have Rock concerts. Lots of them. I love them. We don’t need July 1 weekends downtown per se. It’s foolish logic to think that’s the unique working formula. I recall at least a dozen or two at the Civic Centre for the Brian Adams concert I went to a few years ago. Even saw a handful in Myrons for Dr. Hook. I’ll bet there were at least 25 people for April Wine, Weird Al, Trooper… hell, I wasn’t the lone audient for Don MacLean. Twice. Perhaps we could’ve pulled a hundred if we held it on the warf in the rain. Shit, even Tommy Hunter in Alma will draw a good crowd. Doing this outside was a good excuse to use the uber-speakers and make as much noise as possible. It’s the neanderthal in us that makes us think loud is fun.

I would not want to be hanging from a tree since I was 12, Al! New..but improved???

Thanks for that Mike. Until now, ich glaube(sp?), this site has managed to avoid the need for ‘reinventing’ asbestos undies as so many BBS SIGs and USENet groups have thrived upon. Pausing gracefully as this too passes…

Actually people do beat each other and rob each other after fireworks, so much so that the Canada Day fireworks in Vancouver were cancelled this year.

A guy was stabbed in the Byward Market after the fireworks in Ottawa…

Wow - I never thought it death and mayhem accompanied the old ka-pows. And, yes, Lana, an hour. I have never thought my taxes were ill spent when I got to watch them blow up real good!

…or post it here.