Soundwave Lose $10,000 Bond Over Excessive Noise

Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah has forfeited a $10,000 bond after it was found that last month’s Soundwave event in Adelaide exceeded noise restrictions. The ABC reports that Council monitoring revealed that one stage exceeded the 110 decibel sound limit for 70 percent of the day and evening.

The all-day heavy metal, punk, and hard rock festival took place at Bonython Park. The ABC writes that the Adelaide City Council received a number of complaints from residents of North Adelaide and other city-adjacent areas. Councillor David Plumridge says noise levels could see bond prices rise.

“We want to see these bands come to Adelaide and we understand many people like to go to the concerts and enjoy them,” he told the ABC. “We’ve done sound modelling for each of the local sites they use and we’ve got appropriate locations to put the stages, which way to face them, all that work’s been done and then we have set these levels of sound which we think are reasonable.”

“We’ve established a new events space in the western parklands beside the Adelaide High School that’s fairly well away from a lot of people there. We would encourage these kinds of events to go out there.” Mr Plumridge said that using the west parklands area might affect fewer local residents.

The forfeiture of the bond could not have come at a worse time for Maddah, as his company reels from a tough fiscal situation brought on by lacklustre ticket sales which led to the cancellation of all future Perth events. Maddah has remained optimistic about the return of Soundwave Adelaide.

UPDATE 6:58pm AEDT 01/04/14: AJ Maddah has taken to Twitter to comment on his company’s $10,000 bond forfeiture, revealing to one disappointed follower that the “numerous complaints” the ABC reported Adelaide City Council received on event day was in fact “one guy in North Adelaide.”

Addressing another follower, Maddah revealed that he believes Soundwave “are going to be denied hire of Bonython Park” in the future, in which case, he says “it’ll be adios Adelaide.” The promoter added that “noise wasn’t even an issue,” before adding, angrily, “half a dozen complaints ffs.”

Gallery: Soundwave 2014 – Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne 28/02/2014

Photos by Nikki Williams

@Adelaiderocker @rAdelaide5000 It's one guy in North Adelaide tbh.

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) April 1, 2014

@72nivek Apparently. I believe we are going to be denied hire of Bonython Park in which case it'll be adios Adelaide.

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) April 1, 2014