Falmouth Drive-In Presents Plan To Reduce Noise Complaints

FALMOUTH, MA — Management for the company putting on concerts at the Falmouth Drive-In presented a plan Monday to town officials to lessen noise after the select board received several complaints from nearby residents.

Last month, Town Manager Julian Suso and members of the board said Vivid Event Productions was close to shutting down because complaints kept coming in, even after speaking with Kevin Pacheco, the company's general manager.

Pacheco said he's received some complaints and used satellite technology to analyze how far the sound was traveling. He also canceled plans for a holiday drive-thru, outdoor skating rink and other festive activities following the complaints.

Instead, Vivid Event Productions hopes to come back for more live performances in the Spring, which would require Pacheco to apply for a new permit. To mitigate noise, Pacheco said he will move the stage angle by 35 degrees.

"It was the angle of the stage that really affected the neighborhoods," Pacheco said.

Select Board member Douglass Brown asked Pacheco if car audio was overlooked, since the drive-in uses speakers, as well as FM radio for concerts and movies.

"I wonder whether or not we overlooked the possibility of cars having huge sound systems of their own," Brown said. "That itself can be a very loud sound. It can be so loud it's unbelievable. I wonder if that's part of the problem."

Pacheco said the sound will travel regardless of what goes on in the area, given that the Barnstable County Fair grounds the drive-in presides on has a lot of open space with not many trees, both needed for outdoor concerts at this scale.

But that doesn't mean there aren't things to be done that could mitigate it, he said. And Pacheco agreed with Brown that the radio transmission could be problematic, especially because there's a delay when that sort of audio is used. So if the concerts come back in the spring, Pacheco said he'd strongly consider not using the radio transmission.

"If everyone comes in with their sound system and starts competing to get rid of that delay, it turns into competing to see who has the loudest system," Pacheco said. "We would have no control of that."

Pacheco will still have to come before the board again for a permit review to start up again in the spring, and because of the complaints, Select Board chair Megan English Braga said the company will have to be thorough in what will be happening on site and be prepared to answer questions from residents.

English Braga said she's also received letters of support for the drive-in, but most of the feedback has consisted of complaints, which weren't coming from any particular area near the drive-in.

"There's really some chronic complaints," she said. "It was really widespread, and there were individuals that said positive things but noted there was too much noise on a regular basis.

English Braga and Jones also said there appeared to be more full band concerts than what they were originally led on to believe. Both said they were under the impression that the drive-in would primarily be used for movies and acoustic performances, as did many residents.

Pacheco said the majority of the concerts at the drive-in were acoustic performances, but the more shows were added as business changed. The company sold more tickets and made more money off shows compared to movies, he said, so the drive-in shifted its business model a little.

English Braga said she understands why Pacheco made the change and said it's not a bad thing, but the permit will have to reflect that, since nearby residents have a right to know what to expect out of the venue.

Pacheco apologized to any residents who had a negative experience and said he's always taken the complaints seriously. One thing he did after the initial issues was drop the speaker system's volume by 10 decibels.

"Anytime police came by, we were never cited," Pacheco said. "We let them in to see what they genuinely thought. We aren’t trying to cause any issues with neighbors. We take this very seriously. This is not just a hobby or a passion for us. I’ve been doing this professionally for 25 years."