Saturday, July 5, 2008

Lake venue a success

By Dan Hilborn
Published Aug. 6, 2005


The outdoor concert venue at Deer Lake Park passed its first big test in fairly easy style last month when the Black Eyed Peas came and went with only a few voices of complaint from nearby residents.

"As far as the city is concerned, it was a fabulous show - a terrific show," said Alan Scales, the city's facilities and event services coordinator. "The audience was really well-behaved, they seemed to love the park, and the tour manager for the Peas, his first word when he walked onto the site was 'Wow.'"

Scales confirmed that "four or five" noise complaints were called in, but nothing of great substance.

"We knew there were going to be complaints because it was a new activity and certainly people could hear it. For residents very near, it was loud, but we were over by 10 o'clock and the crowd dispersed quite quickly."

The NOW received one anonymous complaint from a resident who lives on the opposite side of Burnaby Lake and claimed the music was loud enough to be heard from inside her home when the windows were open.

"It was too loud and the music wasn't to my taste," said the woman, who refused to give her name. "Nobody would ever play the radio in this house that loud. But there was nothing you could do about it, and it went on for many hours."

Scales believes the volume levels from the concert were within the guidelines of the city's noise bylaw.

"The person at the city's after-hour service told me he had four or five calls, and what that dispatcher does is pass those on to the environmental health person who is on-call and decides whether or not to respond. Our levels were such that, even if he did come, there wouldn't have been any issues."

Garbage and parking posed more immediate problems for city staff, Scales said.

While a tow truck was kept on-call to deal with any vehicles that might have parked dangerously on the streets, Scales said he does not believe its services were required.

Close to 8,500 people came for the concert.

Several were treated for heat exhaustion and one crew member received medical treatment after bumping his head on a piece of steel.

"A couple of people might have been ushered out of the site, but it wasn't unusual," Scales said.

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