There have been a lot of opinions expressed here recently about noise levels, and a lot of decibel figures bandied about.

I am not going to express any opinions myself, but think it would be useful to bring some FACTS to the table. I'll leave the opinions to the rest of you.

1. Most festivals have to adhere to Environtmental Health imposed limits. These are usually relative to the noise levels at the perimeters of the site,ie nuisance to neighbours. Most (but not all) use the generally accepted level of 65 dBA (15 min average). All the festivals I have any involvement with adhere to those limits - if we didn't, we would get closed down.

2. Most festivals take very seriously their obligations to their employees, under the Health and Safety at Work regulations. These cover all employees which probably includes stewards, security, etc.
(This is why most nightclubs, discos and the like now provide ear plugs for their bar staff and security, and it is a condition of employment that they wear them).

The permitted levels are on a sliding scale - as a combination of decibel level and time of exposure. An average of 85dB can be for 8 hours, 105dB is only 5 minutes. However, this includes peaks which can go up to 135dB or sometimes more.

If you want to see the actual figures, look here http://www.soundadvice.info/thewholestory/san1.htm#noiseexposure.

Again, all the festivals at which I work are monitored and we are careful not to exceed these doses.

3. There is currently NO legislation regarding sound level exposure to the audience, although I suspect there may well be in the future.

Those are the facts.

G