It’s Not Music To All Their Ears Festival At Sandpoint Works To Appease Upset Neighbors

Sylvia Durand swears her bed was vibrating the night the Beach Boys played the Festival at Sandpoint.

The 74-year-old lives directly across from Memorial Field. When festival performers take the stage, the music pours through her walls loud and clear.

“When the Beach Boys were playing, I woke up with a start. I thought there was an earthquake or something because my bed was shaking,” she said.

On Sunday, Durand was propped up against her kitchen counter, taking in the Bellamy Brothers concert. The music rattled her picture window, and a bass drum beat sent a shudder through the floor.

Her favorite show, though, was last week’s Cajun concert with Queen Ida. She liked it so well, Durand phoned her sister-in-law during the concert and held the receiver out the back door so her sister-in-law could enjoy the music, too.

“I can’t say it really bothers me. I’ve lived here long enough to kind of get used to it,” said Durand, who has owned her modest one-story home since 1954.

“I wish the festival success, but I’m hoping they will find another place. They really don’t belong in a neighborhood.”

A group of Memorial Field neighbors has long complained about the loud music and all the cars and throngs of people who invade their blocks each summer.

Because of the complaints, the Sandpoint City Council gave the festival a two-year deadline to find another location. After the 1997 season, the festival is supposed to vanish from Memorial Field.

That has appeased most of the neighbors. So have measures taken by festival organizers to ease some of the problems.

This year, the festival is using four nearby church and school parking lots. The extra space keeps the thousands of concertgoers from constantly cruising by homes looking for parking spaces. The lots all are within walking distance of the field, and concertgoers are allowed to drop off chairs and coolers at the front gate before they park.

Local restaurants also have paid for a shuttle bus to take diners to festival concerts. Those who use the service get a 10 percent discount on their meals.

Portable toilets that used to line the fence across from a row of homes are gone. Neighbors said the toilets were unsightly, and noise from a pumper truck that came to suck out the toilets each morning was annoying and very unappetizing during breakfast.

The portable toilets now are located on the field by the grandstand.

Festival crews also scour the neighborhood after concerts to pick up litter.

“We have fixed a lot of the problems and really haven’t had any complaints from neighbors this year,” said festival Executive Director Connie Berghan. “The only sound complaint came from someone at the Beach Boys concert who said he couldn’t hear very well.”

Berghan said it’s a relatively small group of neighbors who say the festival has become too big to bear.

Kenneth Coulston is one.

“I haven’t really seen much of a change,” Coulston said. “In fact, some of the concerts have been louder.”

The festival has experimented with a new stage arrangement this year. Instead of facing the grandstand, performers now blare music directly at the neighborhood.

“I’m not against the festival, but my bedtime is about 10 p.m. I can’t go to bed or get to sleep until everyone is gone,” Coulston said. The shows typically end by 10:30 p.m. “I don’t have a choice but to listen to the concerts. If I want to watch TV, I have to turn it up louder than the music.”

Coulston has lived in the neighborhood since 1942 and wants the festival to find another location. But other neighbors say they enjoy the music pumped into their homes and yards.

“It’s neat to have ringside seats for nothing,” said Joy Mott as she sat with neighbor Al Steen on the front steps. “We enjoy it, and I’d like to see them stay.”

Larry Brueer moved in across from Memorial Field last year. He was in his garage during the Bellamy Brothers concert with six friends. They were finishing up dessert, sitting by candlelight and listening to the show.

“Obviously, there are some in the neighborhood who are a bit against it,” he said. “But all in all, I think it’s wonderful.”

By 10:45 p.m. Sunday, the Bellamy Brothers were back on their bus. The crowd at the field was gone, the neighborhood was back to cricket-quiet and Durand was ready for bed.

“It was a good show,” she said. “But I’m glad they have a two-year deadline.”

The festival is searching for alternative sites, but Berghan said she hasn’t ruled out Memorial Field.

“We aren’t resigned to the fact we won’t be here,” she said. “We haven’t said we are going to fight for it, and we haven’t said we are leaving it.”

Festival organizers calculate that, between sound checks and concerts, neighbors are inconvenienced only about 60 hours a year. Baseball, football and soccer teams occupy the field more than that.

“When you look at the festival, you have to look at the bigger picture and how we impact not just the neighborhood but also the community, culturally and economically,” Berghan said.

“A decision has to be made weighing all those issues, instead of just by one small area.”

, DataTimes