August 2023
Once a year deep in the heart of a Lincolnshire wood with its winding pathways, derelict buildings, abandoned cars, 18,000 revellers gather to immerse themselves in four days of live music, arts performance, food, culture, wellness and relaxation. Welcome to the Lost Village. With music and festivities continuing until 2:00 am, Lost Village 2022, needed to find a new approach in dealing with the night-time music noise limits to provide the ‘festies’ with a good night out and the local community with a good night’s sleep.
The challenge - To adhere to the night-time noise limits imposed by the local authority – where a regulatory noise reduction at 11:00 pm can result in a noise level decrease of up to 20 dB – without causing audience and artist dissatisfaction and ensuing crowd management problems.
The solution - In agreement with the local authority and with the help of the Noisy system, a staggered approach to night-time music noise levels was allowed. The Noisy system allowed a gradual reduction of sound levels to be configured at the seven primary stages between 11:00 pm and midnight, acclimatising the audience over this one-hour period.
The result - This gradual reduction of noise levels resulted in very few noise complaints over the weekend, full regulatory compliance and a satisfied and happy audience.
With so may external factors at play, having the ability to phase the reductions in levels not only improves on-site experience, but kept local residents happy also.
Andy George, founder of Lost Village
Local authorities can issue a fixed penalty notice if noise from domestic or licensed premises exceeds a certain level between hours of 11.00 pm and 7.00 am. For festivals such as Lost Village this poses the challenge of keeping the right balance between the optimal concert sound and reduced noise in the surrounding environment. Keeping noise levels below prescribed limits is also essential to comply with premises licences and retain local community buy-in.
To get the balance right, Lost Village founder Andy George has been working closely with Noisy' partner organisation, Three Spires Acoustics, a leading consultancy involved with event noise management and regulatory control. During their long-term relationship, Lost Village and Three Spires Acoustics have continuously tweaked their approach to the noise level restrictions, implementing the lessons learnt along the way. One of the main causes of discontent has always been the hard level reduction at 11:00 pm, which can result in a significant decrease of allowable offsite noise levels of up to 20 dB. They needed to find a way of overcoming this issue, while remaining compliant with regulatory requirements.
Once installed, the Noisy system allowed all stages to be monitored at front of house (FoH) or side of house (SoH) positions and provided a central control point displaying all onsite stage sound levels, along with three permanent offsite monitoring stations. Real-time monitoring enabled the engineers to follow, prevent and correct the acoustic impact of internal sound and external noise levels and manage the staggered level reduction while remaining compliant with condition requirements. Reducing the sound levels gradually at each of the seven main stages discreetly acclimatised the audience to the lower limits over a period of one hour, making the shift/ change in volume less dramatic than the step change of previous years.
Satisfied audience and artists, full regulatory compliance and very few noise complaints – the new approach was a huge success. In Andy George’s words, “The innovative new approach to our music noise levels within the premises licence really improved on-site conditions…The local authority’s collaborative approach and willingness to understand our aims made the process straightforward and we achieved both better levels on site and fewer issues off site.”
Although the Lost Village is located in a dense wood, Noisy's flexibility, innovation, and reliable and efficient system were crucial to the success of this event. Long may the Lost Village be a recurring highlight for both festival goers and the local community alike.