Tuesday, June 15, 2010

MusicFest 2010 - coming up

Ready, set, NOISE! MusicFest 2010 got the final green light from the Woodstock City Council tonight. The event, put together by Dan Hart of D.C. Cobbs, will tie up Main Street and the Main St. parking lot on Friday and Saturday, June 25-26, and until 6AM on Sunday.

How do you get there?

Take public transportation. Oh, wait; Woodstock doesn't have any.
Ride your bike. Oh, wait; no bike racks downtown.
Walk? That's a good option.

Or you could drive to Crystal Lake, park and ride the Metra back to Woodstock on Saturday for $5, including the ride back to Crystal Lake.

If you do go early, like to patronize one of the merchants on Main Street or on the Square, be absolutely sure to get your car off Main Street or out of the Main St. parking lot by noon. If you don't? It won't be there when you come back for it. One of the tow companies on the City's approved list will have hauled it away. Councilman Ahrens asked the City Manager to be sure that a car wasn't towed to Barrington and that it wouldn't cost the owner $1,000 to get it back. Yes, cars will be towed at their owners' expense.

Councilwoman Larson asked about the volume of music sound from the band on the stage, which will be at the south end of Main Street. And I asked the City to direct the event producer to control the volume to reasonable levels. Did the City Council hear me? No. It'll be left up to ...; well, it never really got determined. Dan Hart, I guess, if you can find him that week-end.

If the music is too loud? Well, the City will try to do better next year. Sorry, not good enough. Nobody really would take responsibility for having the music volume not to exceed certain levels. Measuring sound levels isn't all that hard?

When is your hearing likely to be at risk? The "safe" daily exposure at 91 dB(A) is only 2 hours. For some people, sound may be damaging at even lower levels than 85 dB(A). You might just want to take some earplugs along.

There is a lot going on downtown that week-end: MusicFest 2010, a car show, Farmer's Market.

Hopefully, the businesses that pay those exorbitant rents on the Square will still be in business the next week.

3 comments:

Logan Square Dispatch said...

This whole post is ridiculous at best. Yes, this music festival is going to put the square out of business. That tends to happen when hundreds of potential new customers show up right in front of your store. Get real. It's called culture and it is great that Woodstock is encouraging this.

If the music is too loud? If the music is too loud for you, you aren't relevant. Sorry, you'll just have to sit this one out. I just hope everybody can figure out how to get to the square without that public transportation!

Sorry Woodstock, no summer fun for you! Gus needs to get up early the next day...he's gotta drive from Woodstock to Minneapolis and fly to O'hare so he can take the Blue Line to the Irving Park stop where he'll transfer to the Metra and take it back to Woodstock so he can get to work on time on Monday.

Gus said...

And humming "Takin' Care of Business" all the way. Must "Get to work by nine and get your pay..."

I do wonder how many merchants expect business from the MusicFest crowd. Maybe the Chamber of Commerce could survey its members - before and after.

elizabeth said...

hi-i've enjoyed reading your blog, you are a very succinct and adept writer. i'm a musician and i hadn't heard of this festival.