Back-to-back music festivals at Olympic Stadium exasperate frustrated neighbours

Sometimes the music is so loud, it rattles walls and shakes dishes in homes surrounding Montreal's Olympic Stadium, residents say. And they've had enough.

For five weeks, there have been back-to-back music festivals held in the Olympic Park's Esplanade. First Metro Metro blasting hip-hop and then Oasis Montreal which featured a range of bass-thumping house and techno.

Neighbours say they didn't just hear the music, they felt it.

"It's three days a week. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for five weeks, we have that boom boom going on," said Dominique Girard​​​​​​, who lives two blocks away from the stadium in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie.

"The windows are closed. We have plugs in the ears. And still we can feel the electronic music inside of ourselves."

Girard has spearheaded the Coalition Antibruit Rosemont (the Rosemont Anti-noise Coalition).

The group launched a petition earlier this month to ask the Régie des installations olympiques — the organization in charge of events at the Olympic Stadium and its park — to do something about the noise.

Noise, Griard says, that far exceeds maximum levels recommended by health experts.

Mitigate noise, residents demand

"We're disturbed psychologically. It's difficult to live," she told CBC Montreal's Daybreak Tuesday. "It's unbearable."

She wants residents to be consulted before such events take place and for neighbourhoods to be better protected from the noise. 

Cédric Esseminy, spokesperson for the Régie des installations olympiques, says the concerts this year are over and now organizers are looking ahead to future shows.

This was the first year they tried to put on such large-scale shows and it was a learning experience, he said.

"We are now talking about this in the past," he said. "We are well aware of what this citizen and other citizens told us."

The Régie sent thousands of notices to residents before the concerts, Esseminy said.

"It was the first time. We tried something. Of course it's not perfect. We had flaws," he said.

"There are a lot of solutions available that we are looking at."

Simple solutions on the way

One solution being considered is to redirect the noise toward unpopulated areas, like Viau Street, he said.

"We're not here to be bad neighbours. We still want to be loved by our neighbours," Esseminy said.

The complaints have been collected and documented, allowing organizers to plan for noise-mitigation measures.

"We are well aware," he said. "We've read all the emails — all the complaints you sent us — and we will be taking this into account for the next year."