The Ultra Cape Town music festival at Kenilworth Racecourse last Friday has drawn flak from residents who say there was little prior warning about an event that kept them up until the early hours with its loud music.
The concert was organised by Salute SA, an events company, and the local and international acts included Goldfish, Swedish DJ Alesso, South African singer Zakes Batwini and Dutch DJ Joris Voorn.
Residents from Wynberg, Kenwyn and as far as Ottery say they could hear the loud music up until the early morning.
“It was loud up until 2am, and there was no prior discussion beforehand to inform the residents that such a loud event will take place,” said Andre Manuel, of Wynberg.
The racecourse had hosted previous events that had finished at midnight and the noise had been kept at an acceptable level, he said.
While such events helped the economy and created jobs, the public should have more of a say about an event that created a significant disturbance, he said.
Another Wynberg resident, June Lune, said the music had been so loud that it had felt like she had been at the concert.
“I have two young children who simply weren’t able to sleep, and the concert was not advertised well enough that I could have made plans to not be home.”
However, another Kenilworth resident said she had received a flyer at her flat about the event, but she had only seen it after the event because she had not been home at the weekend.
The flyer, which she showed to the Tatler, did not have a letterhead but listed a City address for comments.
It said: “Being cognisant of the residents and stakeholders around Kenilworth, the stage has been positioned in an easterly direction.”
June Roman, of Kenwyn, said she started hearing the noise around 9pm on Thursday March 9 with the testing of sound equipment.
“Then on Friday afternoon, there was this loud music booming from the direction of Wetton Road.”
And the music had carried on late into the night, she said.
“The music was so loud it felt as if it was right in my bedroom. It was a constant booming that made it unbearable for one to sleep.”
Ms Roman, who is a runner, said she had planned to get up at 4am on Saturday for a practice run but had been unable to do so because she had been kept awake by the loud music.
Loretta Atkins, of Ottery, said it had felt as if the music was being played in front of her house, which is over 10km away from the venue.
“I initially thought that someone was having a party in the road, though I was told that the music was coming from the race course.”
The loud noise had carried on from 8pm until 2am, she said, adding that it was strange that such an event could be held so close to a residential area.
Ward 60 councillor Mark Kleinschmidt said he had received a “few” complaints from residents in Kenwyn and Ottery. However, others had given positive feedback, saying the event was good for young people.
“This is a once-off event,” he said. “One of the cornerstones of the City is to promote economic development and to provide jobs for young people to have food on the table.”
Mr Kleinschmidt said he would not support a similar event in the future.
Ward 58 councillor Katherine Christie said the organisers had consulted with her and community groups about the positioning of the stage, traffic management and noise control.
“We were satisfied that with the stage facing the Youngsfield Military Base and the radius of sound being restricted to within Ward 58, that the event would not cause undue disturbance.”
Ms Christie said she had consulted residents and community leaders in her ward after the event, and they had responded positively.
However, she said that she could not have anticipated that suburbs further east of the race course, including Wynberg, Kenwyn, Plumstead and Ottery, would be adversely affected by the noise.
“I did apologise, and have given this feedback to the event manager. I will not sign off this event for next year if they cannot take residents beyond Kenilworth and Claremont into consideration.”
Maria Steyn, from Salute SA, said they had worked closely with a City-appointed sound engineer in order to mitigate any noise pollution. She said she did not take the residents’ noise complaints lightly.
“Should this event happen there in future, we will take the affected areas in account when doing the acoustic planning for the next event. In order to reduce noise pollution.”
Ms Steyn said her events company had previously held two Ultra music festivals, one at Cape Town Stadium and another in Philadelphia.
Chief Operating Officer of Cape Racing that runs Kenilworth Racecourse, Donavan Everitt, said they will have a debrief with the City and the Events organiser to determine how things went with the music event.
“A debrief is essential for every event to have a clear understanding of what was working and what was not working so that it will give us input when hosting more events in the future,” he said.
Mr Everitt says while horse racing is the main attraction of the venue, they want to host more events that will be beneficial to the community and will always take the ratepayers and community under consideration when planning and hosting their next event.
The City responded to requests for comment by deadline.
