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WEMF read - Saw this comming
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| DJ_Ampz |
Neighbours raving mad
By Nicole Montreuil, Orangeville Citizen - July 14/05
A reported 5,000 rave-goers descended on the Orangeville Agricultural Fairgrounds last weekend with their tents, sleeping bags, and who-knows-what-else, for the 11th annual World Electronic Music Festival.
And while the ravers were releasing pent-up energy, complaints by sleepless neighbours about the constant thumping of the "bassline" throughout the night descended on Mono council and police.
The thumping was particularly bad in Cardinal Woods, but could be felt or heard for at least a mile around.
Dufferin OPP reported five arrests attributable to the ravers over the course of the weekend - two public intoxication charges, two driving under the influence of alcohol charges, and one very lucky car thief.
But to Ryan Kruger, the promoter and organizer, the rave was a success, all in all. He downplayed the snags - he didn't think there were many - dismissing them as all part of the learning curve involved in using a new venue.
"There were a couple of issues that arose," he said, citing "a bit of noise bleed into the surrounding community" as one of the biggest.
Mono deputy mayor Dave Baldwin wasn't surprised. Mr. Baldwin objected to giving permission for the event at Mono council months ago, and said Monday he'd heard complaints from several residents.
He lives not far from the Fairgrounds, so he understood the complaints:
"I got up at 3:30 a.m. and heard a 'thunk-thunk-thunk' and I'm about a mile from the fairgrounds as the crow flies."
For neighbours living even closer, Mr. Baldwin imagined the show made quite a ruckus - almost as much noise, in fact, as Destiny Production's talk of making the Fairgrounds the festival's permanent home.
He was adamant that Mono residents wouldn't allow the show back next year.
"I think there will be an insurrection if they think that's going to happen," he said. "If they tried to recreate that next year or any year after that, there would certainly be an outcry."
Mono Mayor Keith Thompson wasn't as quick to dismiss the idea of a repeat. He observed that from Woodstock to the original Gay Pride Parade in downtown Toronto, there have always been local residents opposed to the start-up of a new festival:
"For the first Gay Pride Parade in Toronto, the only people who lined the street weren't there to cheer them on."
WEMF has switched locations across the province for almost a dozen years, building the show's underground mystique by elaborating on the rave subculture's appeal.
But Destiny wants a permanent home for the festival now and has said the Fairgrounds looks ideal.
Mayor Thompson said the challenge - if it's to be an annual event - was to keep a balance between residents' desire for peace and quiet and youth seeking an outlet for pent-up energy.
That observation - that today's kids need events like the electronica festival to blow off a little steam in the way their baby- boomer parents needed love-ins and folk festivals like Woodstock - came up among several people involved in WEMF's organization here.
"Every generation, I swear, goes through the process at least once," Mayor Thompson said."It's an issue that will obviously have to involve council."
He pointed out that noise complaints aren't new in Mono, and suggested that the town may already have set a precedent for dealing with loud functions.
He recalled that Mono residents used to get up in arms against car rallies, so the town passed a bylaw that allows car rallies, but only two a year and required events to be granted a town permit, something Mayor Thompson said would be a precedent worth considering if WEMF requires further study.
For Brenda Teeter, who lives on the Fairgrounds property, the problems with WEMF were more than just a learning curve.
They were a sign that the electronic music festival just isn't suitable for a residential area like the one around the Fairgrounds.
Ms. Teeter's Chevy Envoy was stolen from her garage Saturday afternoon. The keys were in it at the time, and the family was in the backyard by the pool, watching the kids at the rave.
She said she'd left the keys in the vehicle, but she'd left the vehicle "in my garage, which is inside my house." She said the garage door had been opened and closed all day.
The Envoy ended up in the ditch on the fourth line of Mono, south of 5 Sideroad, where it had been driven off the road, rolled end over end into a fence and caught fire.
Passers-by stopped and saw a youth climbing out of the ditch who identified himself as a rave-goer. He was taken to Headwaters Health Care Centre, treated for non-serious injuries, and then held in OPP custody. Drugs or alcohol were thought to be involved.
Destiny Productions had offered to put up Ms. Teeter's family and two others on the Fairgrounds in a hotel for the length of the show.
Friday night, she opted not to use the room booked for her at Hockey Valley Resort, instead staying in her home because she "didn't feel safe" leaving it alone.
She changed her mind after the theft, and spent Saturday night at the resort, but her son and daughter stayed home to guard the house.
Destiny Productions promoters refused to comment on the incident involving the Teeters' Envoy, except to say that in 10 years of hosting events, they'd never had it happen before and now that it has, future event security will be "retooled" to prevent a recurrence.
Ms. Teeter is driving a rental at Destiny's expense until her insurance company deals with the claim.
"He offered to buy me a brand new car," she said of Mr. Kruger. "But like I said, I haven't heard from him since."
She expects her insurance company to get back to her sometime in the next week.
She emphasized that anger over the event was "not just me - it's the whole neighbourhood. Every neighbour's got a story to tell."
Ms. Teeter, and another resident, said the promoter didn't have enough security to adequately patrol the grounds and the security promised to safeguard her house never materialized.
They watched the backyard pool, she said, but not the front-yard entrance into the garage.
Mr. Kruger said the Teeters had requested only that security watch their backyard pool, which lay within sight of the ravers.
As for the drugs, violence and other problems expected from the rave-goers, reports varied.
Dufferin OPP reported five rave-related arrests over three days, including the theft of the Envoy.
A caller said a person she knew at Headwaters Health Care Centre told her staff had detected drugs they'd never seen before among rave-goers who had come or been brought there.
The same person said her mailbox had been stuffed with garbage, and that she'd seen police questioning a group of youths on her way into Orangeville, and on her return saw luggage on the road and the youths in handcuffs.
She also reported that the fence on the old road right-of-way on the north side of Island Lake had been cut and rolled back - something one raver said was just a case of people wanting to go swimming in lieu of showers.
Others were seen trespassing on private property.
"Where was the security?" she wondered.
Those attending WEMF signed a waiver before entry agreeing to several restrictions while at the event.
One such restriction specified that anyone caught trespassing on neighbouring properties would be evicted from the event and subject to criminal charges.
At Headwaters, spokesperson Kathryn Hunt said that while the emergency room did have to cope with a 30 per cent patient-load increase over the weekend, it was impossible to tie the increase to any one event.
"As you know, we had three large events in town," she said. "It was a very busy weekend for emergency staff.
She said 20 to 30 more patients came to emergency each day over the weekend.
Asked about the report of people overdosed on strange drugs, she declined to comment, saying that Canada's new privacy act prevents hospital staff from discussing individual cases - a policy that seemed to extend to the more general question asked.
On the other hand, Dufferin OPP Sergeant Chris Maecker was at the festival for part of the weekend, and said that aside from handling the neighbours' noise complaints, there wasn't much for police to do.
"Our big concern at the time was how loud music was going to be. We weren't sure about that. It was organized, but I was certainly sympathetic to residents in the area as far as noise goes."
Aside from off-duty officers on-site to provide additional security, the OPP also brought in special teams to secure the area.
Emergency response units, crime units, property crime units, and RIDE units helped secure the entire rave area, though some RIDE units set up on Hockley Valley Road near Airport Road.
At its peak, there were 30 to 40 officers involved.
RIDE units stopped five intoxicated drivers, two rave-related, and all involving alcohol rather than drugs.
Two arrests for public intoxication were made inside WEMF, as well.
Those figures were small comfort to Ms. Teeter, who also took issue with the state the grounds were in when the ravers left Sunday.
"I've never had to keep my garage door shut all through the fall fair," she said. "And you never saw any garbage when you woke up in the morning."
Harold "Sandy" Sanderson, manager of the Fairgrounds, said the grounds looked pretty much like he expected they would when he arranged for the rental with Mr. Kruger - 5,000 people sharing a confined space for three days is bound to leave something of a mess.
One of the Fairgrounds clean-up crew said the post-WEMF litter is nothing compared to the televised shots of post-Live 8, and WEMF lasted three times as long.
Clean-up crews were expected to finish by week's end. One Fairgrounds representative said the only reason clean-up took so long was the heat wave, which made working outside for long periods almost impossible.
Mr. Sanderson said comparing WEMF to other concerts held at the Fairgrounds was like "comparing apples and oranges."
He said the ravers left the building in excellent condition.
"I've had worse than that at weddings," he said.
~Ampz |
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| Jem_hadar |
| n Islanders! -- oh , wait, NM, sorry. |
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| Orko |
Who wrote that article, and where was it published? I think it was really fair. The mayor, and cops both seemed fine with what took place, and expected it.
Does not seem like a normal article on this sort of thing. |
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| Jem_hadar |
| quote: | Originally posted by Orko
Who wrote that article, and where was it published? I think it was really fair. The mayor, and cops both seemed fine with what took place, and expected it.
Does not seem like a normal article on this sort of thing. |
I would have thought itd have been WAY more jaded, like some of the ones that i read last yaer re: WEMF when it was up here in Wasaga!!! :( :( :( |
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| DJ_Ampz |
WEMF06? Why not?
by Nicole Montreuil
The wristband on my right arm says I've been to WEMF, the electronic
music festival held last weekend at the Orangeville Agricultural
Fairgrounds. You probably know it better as "the rave." And if you've heard anything about it, you've most likely heard the
negative point of view. The noise of the bassline that kept some Mono residents awake. The acts of mischief. The stolen car. There's more to it than that.
It wasn't just a bacchanal with a beat. For the 5,000 kids who
travelled across North America purely for the WEMF experience, it was
a celebration. The perfect weekend. They call it a subculture, this collection of crazy colour and synthesized sound. There's even an unofficial motto: Peace, Love, Unity and Respect.
They weren't screaming obscenities and hurling the hatred found in
gangsta rap or heavy metal. They were literally dancing the night away
at a festival that bore more resemblance to the Woodstock we imagine
than the Woodstock that occured, because at WEMF, no one died.
That's right. It was a festival, one that brought 5,000 people to
town. I called around to find out what kind of impact that would have
on a local economy.
The person I talked to at the local tourism board asked which festival
it was, as though there's a way 5,000 people can have a negative
economic effect.
When I told her which one I meant, she said they had nothing to do
with it -- that it wasn't their target audience who'd shipped by bus
and car, and that the only store they could think of that might have
seen increased sales as a result was the Beer Store.
So none of the drivers would need to gas up before the long drive back
to New Jersey or Connecticut, or stop at Tim Horton's before the drive
back to Ottawa or Burlington?
Festival organizers would have stats on how WEMF impacted the local
economy, I was told. Destiny Productions said a conservative estimate
was $500,000 over three days, something I was told was "unbelievable."
Like 5,000 people wouldn't spend $30 a day or so over a weekend for
gas, food, lodgings, cigarettes, and entertainment.
They didn't all stay up on the Fairgrounds property all weekend. On
Saturday, while the music stopped and others were resting, some of the
ravers came into town for Buskerfest.
They loved the town. They certainly spent money here.
Yet there are those who want to keep WEMF from coming back next year.
The noise, I'm told. The noise and the mischief. Funny, how when I
talked to the OPP and the cops, they had precious few arrests to
report. In fact, noise aside, the OPP seemed to think it was a
well-run show.
Five thousand people here and five arrests?
You've had Lobsterfests worse than that. You've had Lobsterfests where
the Orangeville Police drove their prisoner wagon to the event, loaded
up by the dozen, unloaded at the station, and returned for another
lot. I have that on good authority.
Last week, I heard all about the traffic jam caused by the Highland
Rotary Club's fireworks display up at that same Fairgrounds. The
Rotarians had already scheduled a meeting to discuss ways to correct
that for next year.
It was a growing pain caused by moving a popular, familiar celebration
into a new, more suitable venue.
The same is true of WEMF.
Orangeville taxpayers subsidized the Blues and Jazz Festival and the
Rotarians' fireworks display to the tune of thousands of dollars.
They didn't subsidize WEMF at all.
Instead, Destiny forked out to rent the Fairgrounds -- something that
may well make it financially easier to hold horse shows and the fall
fair -- and to secure an off-duty OPP presence at the show.
It didn't cost you a dime. It can only help.
Neighbours complained about the noise -- said the bassline that kept
us moving kept them up. But their windows were open. Their ears were
perked, ready and waiting.
Their complaints began long before the event did and by the time the
first DJs began spinning, the clock was ticking on when those
complaints would be lodged.
I wrote about WEMF a month before it happened specifically so people
would be prepared. So that they wouldn't be surprised by the noise,
but rather equipped to avoid it.
Some did. You turned on your fans and air conditioners. You shut your
windows. You simply rolled over and went back to sleep.
Thank you.
If you can't find a way to make 5,000 peaceful kids gathering to dance
for three days a positive for your community, you're not the community
I thought you were.
~Ampz |
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| DJ_Ampz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Orko
Who wrote that article, and where was it published? I think it was really fair. The mayor, and cops both seemed fine with what took place, and expected it.
Does not seem like a normal article on this sort of thing. |
Neighbours raving mad
By Nicole Montreuil, Orangeville Citizen - July 14/05
ps. Thanx to dan, aka Vidman.ca for the stories :) |
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| awishabear |
I missed the event, but from everyone's reviews it went off great, and if the only major things that happened were noise complaints and one person's unwise decision to leave her keys in her car, it seems as if Orangeville would be ideal for WEMF in the future.
Speaking of that lady, if she left her keys in her car, what's to say someone NOT from WEMF would have taken it?? Some people.. |
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| Irishaddict |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Ampz
One of the Fairgrounds clean-up crew said the post-WEMF litter is nothing compared to the televised shots of post-Live 8, and WEMF lasted three times as long.
Mr. Sanderson said comparing WEMF to other concerts held at the Fairgrounds was like "comparing apples and oranges."
He said the ravers left the building in excellent condition.
"I've had worse than that at weddings," he said.
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BOOYAH.
Damn you Jem, I had an awesome Islander's joke lined up about this. You beat me to it you saundyovabeyotch! :p |
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| karim |
What's wrong with the retarded kids these days when they're getting high off their kites, and rolling envoys.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
:(
Karim |
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| Orko |
| quote: | Originally posted by awishabear
I missed the event, but from everyone's reviews it went off great, and if the only major things that happened were noise complaints and one person's unwise decision to leave her keys in her car, it seems as if Orangeville would be ideal for WEMF in the future.
Speaking of that lady, if she left her keys in her car, what's to say someone NOT from WEMF would have taken it?? Some people.. |
haha i know. thats retarded. I know they live in a small community, but the fact is, there is just as much crime in small towns as there is in a big city, sometimes more.
I still impressed that the mayor really understood that this sort of festival need to take place. Kids need to blow off steam.
and 5 arrests out of 5,000 people, thats only 0.1%! Not bad at all. |
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| karim |
| quote: | Originally posted by awishabear
I missed the event, but from everyone's reviews it went off great, and if the only major things that happened were noise complaints and one person's unwise decision to leave her keys in her car, it seems as if Orangeville would be ideal for WEMF in the future.
Speaking of that lady, if she left her keys in her car, what's to say someone NOT from WEMF would have taken it?? Some people.. |
Are you kidding me? If you leave a bike, UNLOCKED in your garage and somebody steals it, is it your fault for leaving your bike unlocked IN A GARAGE?!?!
C'mon. Somebody came ONTO her property, STOLE her car, and drove it into a ditch. Her "unwise" decision pales in comparison to what the car thief didn.
:)
Karim |
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