Fine tuning Mysteryland

Posted 8/21/12

The tone of the town meeting following the Mysteryland Music Festival this year could not have been more different than the one last year.

In 2014, several people got up to complain about the …

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Fine tuning Mysteryland

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The tone of the town meeting following the Mysteryland Music Festival this year could not have been more different than the one last year.

In 2014, several people got up to complain about the excessive noise forcing them to keep their windows closed, and loud bass, thumping with such force that it knocked pictures off the walls of nearby homes.

This year, there was not one complaint publicly lodged at the meeting and, in fact, there was praise all around for everyone involved. It seems that town officials and the concert organizers listened to the public complaints last year and took measures to mitigate the negative impacts, which is what the public should hope for.

One concertgoer noted that last year she could still feel the bass in her chest as she was in the parking lot preparing to leave. This year, she said she could still hear the music, but it was not pulsing through her chest.

At a town meeting earlier in the year, Town of Bethel Supervisor Dan Sturm assured residents who had expressed concern about the noise level that Mysteryland had promised to hire independent sound consultants to help them arrange the sound in a way that would have the least impact on the nearby homes, and that seems to have resulted in a good outcome.

At the town meeting a few days after the concert was over, Sturm said that staging the event was a team effort, which involved not only staff from Mysteryland USA and Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, but also the Bethel planning board and the town clerk Rita Sheehan, who issued the necessary permits. There was also much work on the part of the town code enforcement, the town constables, the local fire companies, ambulance service, New York State Police and Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.

Sturm thanked all of those people and organizations and he also thanked his fellow members of the town board who, he said, made tough decisions to allow the concert to happen for the second year in a row, and stuck by those decisions. He also noted that many of the people who were working at the event were from the community.

Tom Hendrickson, who is married to council member Lillian Hendrickson, said that he spent a few hours at the concert, and he had a good time talking to a few of the thousands of young people who had gathered at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock festival. He said he enjoyed himself, although he didn’t care for the music. It’s worth noting that it is not the volume of the music he complained about, but instead he didn’t like what he considered to be repetition.

Overall, it seems that Mysteryland is an event that is a very good fit with the legacy of the land that attracted a-half-million music lovers in 1969. It honors the history of the site in a way that brings a shot of commerce to eateries and other businesses from Monticello to Liberty and beyond.

The complaints from neighbors, however, did not entirely disappear, and Sturm noted that at the town meeting. He said he received some pointed comments about the noise and the traffic from a few people, although substantially fewer than last year. He said officials needed to strive to further reduce or eliminate the remaining negative impacts.

While it is not likely that Mysterland, Bethel Woods and the town will be able to please everyone, we urge those involved to keep up the effort. The reaction at the town meeting shows that officials and others involved have taken a significant step in the right direction and we, too, hope the event returns next year.

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