Plan to reduce noise levels at music festival in Bottle Lake

Donna Richards and Betty Chapman with the petition. Photo: Supplied

A plan to relocate Rolling Meadows music festival to Bottle Lake has been met by complaints from nearby residents, with organisers Sub180 now working on ways to reduce noise levels.

Despite not having resource consent for the festival on December 29-31, work has started on preparing the 62ha site at 240 Lower Styx Rd.

The lineup of 80 local and international acts was announced last week, triggering automatic charges for pre-booked tickets, followed by general concert tickets available from Tuesday.

Christchurch City Council head of planning and consents Mark Stevenson said the council is reviewing a revised proposal and awaiting further information from Sub180, in order to continue processing the application.

Angry Bottle Lake residents launched an online petition last Friday

, calling on organisers to reduce the hours of the three-day event.

The petition, organised by Betty Chapman and Donna Richards, had 165 signatures as of today.

Chapman said she wasn’t against concerts if held during normal hours.

“We’re concerned at the festival going on all day until 2am or later. We’re going to hear that booming base all night.”

Sub180 has resubmitted its resource consent proposal several times to try and reduce noise to a level consistent with District Plan noise standards.

It includes adjusting stage orientations, adding acoustic walls around part of the Stage A compound and having more performances on Stage A.

However, Sub180 has applied to exceed noise level standards for two hours from 10pm to midnight on New Year’s Eve.

“We’re not happy,” said Chapman. “It’s too loud. It’s the drum and bass that concerns us."

Rolling Meadows concert. Photo: Supplied

Chapman and her husband moved to their property 14 years ago.

“The concert will be good for Christchurch long term, but we would never have bought there if we knew something like this could happen,” she said.

Chapman said out of about 30 properties affected, there was a solid core of eight neighbours opposing the plan.

She said many of the residents were retired, and came to the area for the peace and quiet.

“It’s not the place to have it (the festival), there’s going to be thousands of people. There’s going to be transport issues, rubbish everywhere.”

For the past four years, Rolling Meadows was a two-day festival held on December 30-31 that attracted up to 7000 people to Waipara, North Canterbury.

However, this year organisers want to relocate to the Lower Styx Rd site and expand the festival to three days.

Residents are worried it could set a precedent, paving the way for more concerts at the same venue during the year.

Concert organisers have offered to pay for alternative accommodation for residents during the festival, and plan to hire people to patrol the streets, and deal with rubbish.

“We don’t want to be away from our homes. We don’t trust that the concert-goers aren’t going to scope our homes when we’re away. Our properties won’t be safe, we won’t be safe,” Chapman said.

Sub180 declined to comment on questions from

The Star