Electronic Dancing Allowed for Comcast

Overriding a host of complaints over noise levels at the Identity Festival on August 20, selectmen voted 4-1 Wednesday to allow Comcast manager Bruce Montgomery to continue negotiations to have the tour return next summer.

The Comcast entertainment license has yet to be completed and voted on by the board, but Montgomery said he wanted to ensure this kind of entertainment would be allowed before he could enter into conversations with Identity representatives, or other acts that require the parking lot stage. The stage, out of the confines of the theater itself, was the cause of the noise that apparently could be heard over a wide area of the town.

Hoping to stem any reoccurrence of the problems, Montgomery has placed restrictions on both the location of the stage, and the length of time the dance music will go on. In August, the concert went until the 11 p.m. mandatory end time, but he told the board from now on, concerts that feature the outside stage will end at "civil twilight" - a legal term Montgomery said denoted a half hour after sunset.

During the summer, exact "civil twilight" can vary, with the latest time coming at about 9:30.

"The sound was unacceptably loud in the neighborhood - the worst part was that it went until 11 p.m.," Montgomery said. "The calls started coming in a half hour after sunset ... we clearly know it became much more unacceptable late at night."

Montgomery also told the board he intends to change the location of the extra stage to Lot 11, where a hill will help buffer the sound. Aiming the stage towards woods instead of towards South Main Street should also mitigate the impact of the dance music.

Montgomery said he had personally visited several parts of town during the concert to see if he could determine where the greatest disruption was, and said West Mansfield, usually the source of many sound complaints, was mostly quiet. The South Main Street neighborhood seemed to receive the most serious decibel wallop because of the orientation of the stage.

Selectman George Dentino, whose home is in that neighborhood, was not convinced by the new plans or the promises.

"Civil twilight is just a ruse," Dentino said. "Bruce (Montgomery) is just being proactive at getting Identity back in. There is no protection for the town whatsoever...all I did was field phone calls all night."

But Dentino was outnumbered, and the board voted 4-1 to accept the changes Montgomery had suggested, including the final curtain for the outside stage at civil twilight, and the reorientation and relocation of the stage.

Montgomery said there would perhaps be two shows next summer that would require the electronic dance music arrangements.