Road closures announced for Beach Road Weekend

Dec 05, 2023

The festival promoters say they will be taking noise calculations before and during the show.

Updated August 14

Town officials released information about road closures taking place during Beach Road Weekend.

The three-day festival takes place from Friday, August 25, to Sunday the 27th. During the weekend, there will be road closures from 8 am to 10 pm on each day, according to the Tisbury Police Department. Causeway Road will be closed from State Road to Skiff Avenue, and Lagoon Pond Road will be closed from Five Corners to Skiff Avenue.

There will also be parking restrictions that last longer. From Monday, August 14, to Friday, Sept. 1, there will be no parking at the Veterans Park driveway entrance, or on Lagoon Pond Road from the Veterans Park driveway entrance to Safe Harbor Marina. From Tuesday, August 15, to Friday, Sept. 1, there will be no parking at the Causeway parking area at Veterans Park, although limited parking is available from 7 pm to midnight.

All residents and guests may enter with a parking pass, which can be picked up at the Tisbury Police Department along with “No Parking” signs.

Meanwhile, Beach Road Weekend producers announced a new sound management and mitigation plan.

Members of a group named the Sound Experience Community Response Team will “roam Vineyard Haven, continuously measuring sound pressure levels at different locations, and reporting back to their audio engineers continuously” during the setup and over the entire weekend of Beach Road Weekend, according to a press release from the producers.

The team members will start their evaluation by monitoring sound levels with professional-grade decibel meters around town, during the installation and sound check of the audio systems. At this time, limits will be set to ensure sound levels outside the festival grounds “do not exceed the legal limit during the three days of the event.”

“Everyone involved with this festival wants it to be an exceptional audio and visual experience for guests, and to have as little impact upon the surrounding community as possible,” Beach Road Weekend executive producer Adam Epstein said in the release. “By evaluating the audio levels during the sound check, we have the opportunity to set acceptable levels that meet state and local legal standards, and have as little impact upon the surrounding area as possible. I have instructed our entire team to prioritize management of sound bleed outside the festival grounds. Audio levels will be adjusted and lowered whenever sound levels are determined to be above Massachusetts legal limits.”

When asked for more details about the initiative, Epstein told The Times on Thursday that the team will be utilized to “better understand the ambient noise level” in the neighborhoods near the concert, and to “establish baseline audio levels.” He added that any statewide or municipal restrictions on decibel levels “applicable to outdoor events” will be followed.

“Considering Beach Road Weekend mainstage performances occur during the hours of noon to 8 pm, outside the time period where traditional municipal sleep time audio limits are set, we will seek to set our volume levels so that volume outside the park is near-ambient norms, while also ensuring that the experience of the guests is at the highest quality,” he said.

Epstein listed some changes made to improve this year’s festival for both concertgoers and abutters, including a “full sound check.” Previously, the festival organizers had been “cut off by public officials,” and were unable to “properly establish the optimal audio mix for within and outside the park.”

“We have also brought new audio engineers and a much-improved line array to better target where the sound travels and where it does not,” Epstein said. “Additional audio will project out of both sets of stage speakers throughout the day, giving a fuller sound throughout the field. Finally, in the past, the head audio engineer mixed the sound from a position 10 feet above the audience, providing the engineer a different audio experience from the audience. This year the sound will be mixed from the ground level, giving the engineers the understanding of what the audience hears at all times.”

Town officials and festival producers also adopted the use of a phone app called Decibel X, which the release describes as “a professional-grade decibel meter,” which is available for free. This will allow individuals to measure and submit data to the town to investigate the audio impact.

The release states festival producers also made an online platform where residents can report audio disturbances directly to the Tisbury Police Department, which will allow the concert technicians the opportunity to “quickly remedy any troublesome audio issues.” A town representative would also be sent out to investigate a noise concern. The platform can be accessed at bit.ly/3qqtWf1. Noise issues can also be submitted to the Tisbury Police Department by phone at 508-696-4240, ext. 607.

“We are excited about the prospect of using data-based reporting measures to better understand how the festival sound travels around the surrounding area, and to allow that understanding to lead to a lighter impact on the neighborhoods around the park. We are also very excited about the ability to hear directly from town residents who can report actual measurements of their concerns online,” Tisbury town administrator John Grande said in the release.

Updated with additional details from Adam Epstein and the Tisbury Police Department.