The Sound of Music - Proposals
Proposal
Less loud music hours this year but no silent Burn. (comment)
Data gathered:
- responses on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kiezburn/permalink/2563311093915170/
- Census results
Impact on location:
none. We cannot have ANY electronic music at Freiland if we want to have it on the same date. We could make sound if we move the date.
Background information
As most of you probably know, I started a thread on Facebook in order to gauge opinions among burners as to the idea of having Kiezburn at the same venue, same date but with stronger sound restrictions to counter the number of complaints from neighbours.
While I admit the thread was by no means exhaustive, there did seem to be a lot of support for a quieter burn. From my point of view, two interesting issues arose:
1) The neighbours are not the only ones who have issues with consistent loud electronic music. A lot of burners also seemed to be in favour of a quieter burn.
2) A quieter burn does not necessarily mean a reduction in sound levels or permitted volume, but more a reduction in the number of hours where loud music can be played.
As a result of this, I’m making two proposals:
1) Instead of a sound curfew, have set hours where loud music CAN be played, but leave the permitted decibel levels the same. Something along the lines of 5pm to midnight/1am on weekdays, and 3am/4am on weekends. Maybe with no restrictions on the last night (exact hours would depend on negotiations with the Amt, obviously). If music volume is the same, neighbours are less likely to complain about loud music at say 11pm on Friday night than they would at 3am Wednesday morning when they have to be up for work in four or five hours . Let’s be honest – that would piss most people off!
2) Strict enforcement of the rules. If the music has to be off at 1am, then – maybe with a grace period of 5-10 mins, if needs to be off at that time. While burners know an extra quarter of an hour or so isn’t a problem and will be patient, the neighbours won’t. If we’re still going 15-30 mins after knock-off time, they could well get the idea that we’re lying to them and still intending to crack on until 6am. If they make a call at 1.20 when we’ve said we’ll stop at 1am, it’s not going to look good.
Burners know about the concept of “Playa Time”, the neighbours don’t!
I fully accept that the thread on Facebook isn’t representative - a lot of the sound camps were ironically silent on the issue! And I know it’s going to cause issues for them, such as less DJ slots or shorter sets. But this is going on the info and viewpoints I’ve encountered from said thread and from talking to people.
Furthermore - and this is me talking personally, to be fair - I’d encourage the idea of shorter music times even if Kiezburn did go to a new location. The sheer volume (in terms of number of hours) of music is causing problems and needs to be addressed. It’s not just for health reasons, but to people who want to hear things like birds chirping or Mother Nature “omming” at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Personally, as a visual artist, I find it hard to concentrate and to paint in these conditions, which is why I’ve stayed away. There’s no point in me going if I can’t contribute, and I’m not the only one. Presently, I feel that with the current levels, Kiezburn runs the risk of ceasing to be recognisable as a burn and becoming just another techno/psytrance festival.
Anyway, thanks for reading, look forward to the input 😊
TL,DR:
Less hours rather than lower volume; let’s be nice and inclusive to our fellow burners as well as civically responsible to our neighbours. :)
Alina, also known as Universe Wed 22 Jan 2020 3:41PM
It's an idea and I would love to hear from you what you think about going pro on audio output control?
walto Wed 22 Jan 2020 2:03PM
Good point. So a discussion on the proposal would probably highlight that aspect and most likely result in a tweaking of the sound policy 2020 proposal. Fruitful feedback :=)
Leon Noller Sat 25 Jan 2020 2:35PM
I like it and totally up for that
CJ Yetman Sun 26 Jan 2020 11:49AM
I don’t see it as people above the law, or people out to get us... I look at it as the limits the amt set last year were insufficient to satisfy the community.
Alina, also known as Universe Tue 28 Jan 2020 1:53PM
YES totally YES to that! Cosy, intimate and dancy! <3 It's the living-room dancefloor style ( think @Till Tailor ) was talking about 🎉
walto Mon 27 Jan 2020 11:45PM
You are right David. If we abide by those legal levels, we can keep having the event in same manner since we did not go above those levels last year either. However, it became clear last year they do not really understand what those decibel levels mean. We should probably self-impose stricter levels so to avoid burning local bridges.
Jan-Christian Kaspareit Tue 28 Jan 2020 11:10AM
Our permit was also clear on allowed sound levels last year and we measured those as well, but when people complained, nobody gave a fuck, that we were in the allowed range. The Ordnungsamt stated more or less "if people complain, then it's too loud". The "legal" part is is really difficult, as it's not really fun to get into legal discussions, when the Ordnungsamt threatens to withdraw the permit. So please, please, please don't get too confident with "legal requirements". Just be aware that we will not be in a strong position, when the police/Ordnungsamt calls friday night at 2 in the morning.
So this year we will need to make sure that we stay (way) below the sound level of last year. Last year we almost lost the permit on friday and as already mentioned, we were totally within the legal limits. The volunteers measuring sound will be a great addition, but nobody at the Ordnungsamt was really open for discussions about measured sound levels at night and it's almost impossible to measure all the spots at once.
We should just be aware, that we are close to the next villages and do everything we can to reduce our sound impact. Especially we should play it safe on the weekdays. Last year our warm up parties were a little too much. Keep it a little more low key on wednesday and thursday, when a lot of people have to get up early for work and the go a little harder on friday and saturday. The weekend seemed pretty okay last year.
Jan Thomas Tue 28 Jan 2020 1:18PM
@David I have to correct you on this. In 2019 our permit allowed for 55dB during night hours and 70dB during the day, which is more lenient and easier to keep within. Sticking within 55 during the day and 45 at night requires us to have less sound than last year. I was involved with the measurements every night and we were above 45dB a few times (weather & location dependent).
As @Jan-Christian Kaspareit points out the challenge is not just to be within the legal limit - but to not piss off the neighbors - which we learned last year is easy to do even though being technically within the limit. Also it would be part of our agreement with Freiland to not be putting any large soundsystems, so this also excludes the possibility of it. A Kiezburn at Freiland around 16-21 June 2020 would need to be quiet as per the other posts about this, i.e. we'd need to carefully test and figure out how we can have some smaller sound stages, ensure the systems can't be turned up too loud and prevent the sound from travelling to neighboring villages at night - especially during the weeknights.
Alina, also known as Universe Tue 28 Jan 2020 1:48PM
hello awesome people @waldo @Jan-Christian Kaspareit @David would you be open to moving this talk to https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/23eZPYq0/the-sound-of-music-proposals ? I know location and sound are interlinked, but it would help us to remain sane to keep sound talks to sound thread! P.S. we are starting to run out of time again (it's end of January! we should be initiating membership registrations!) We COULD have a solution now if we agreed on a "quiet" (not silent) burn at Freiland at the same dates! I am thankful to hear that even the awesome cowboys are open to "keeping it down". Shifting our focus a bit away from big-ass soundsystems would be healthy for us. Experimentation (at least for one year) would be awesome for us. We could buy us more time to find and book a new location for 2021 if necessary! Could we move this convo there AND invite people who really need to be here - Zerzura, Underworld, Pirates (?), more cowboys? - if they are planning on coming back in 2020 !?
Alina, also known as Universe · Wed 22 Jan 2020 12:17PM
Fully agree. We can be argued down on principle of Redical Self Expression: that this is the important and only way for Berlin community to radically express themselves. But I do hear that enough "please-stop-the-loud-banging--all-over-the-place-all-the-time-already" calls to sanity from both within and without our community have been voiced. We did have a big discussion last year and we did agree on a curfew - except there was virtually none in the end (or so my ears told me). Plus, I will keep repeating, we have an extremely poor representation on art/performances/other outerworldly burnery experiences. I call for a return to some radical curation of Radical Self Expression :) Also curious to hear from Waldo on this topic! @waldo