For the 2017 season we have been graced with a new concert series at Hudson Field off Route One and Eagle Crest Road. Did I say graced?
I understand the idea, creating jobs and sparking business to the area by offering this entertainment. It is my understanding that 20 or so years ago Hudson Field was used for concerts. I was told the Beach Boys performed there, so as I said, this is just a new concert series!
I just want to discuss the other side of this coin. When they were performing the initial sound checks for the first concert, I thought someone was in my back room. The sound was that clear and that loud. I live in the Oyster Rock Community which is on the other side of Route One, behind the Lewes Church of Christ and the Covington Chase Community, so there is quite a bit of buffering between the stage and my house, but still, you would have sworn the person at the mike was standing in my back room.
Once the concert started, the volume varied between almost bearable to bearable. Fast forward to the next two concerts. The volume increased on each consecutive concert. It seemed as if someone was testing to see what the communities would tolerate!
Being the president of the Oyster Rock P.O.A., that's when I started to receive communication by phone and email complaining about the intensity and duration of the volume. You see, the folks performing those sound checks don't check the sound that's littering the outskirts.
Maybe if they had someone from the venue come and check the intensity of the volume that is bleeding past their intended audience, they could target the speakers directionally to more impact the paying audience, and/or decrease the volume a bit so that it's at least bearable. As it is now, I'm surprised that it hasn't awakened the dead at Whites Chapel Cemetery.
I don't want to stand in the way of people's enjoyment of music but there has to be a yin yang to this new series. Twenty years ago the area across Route 1 was all farmland with no worry about sound levels. Over the past 20 years there have been three developments added.
Homes owned by people who work different hours, shift work, have infant children or who just want to watch TV. If the intensity of the sound and degree of bass were reduced, the audience at Hudson Field would still enjoy the music and the residents of Covington Chase, Oyster Rock, Osprey Landing and residents of Oyster Rocks Road would be able to live a (somewhat) peaceful life and the residents of Whites Chapel Cemetery could once again rest in peace.
Enjoyment with the respect for the folks who have lived here for years. Is that too much to ask?
Mike Irise
Milton
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