Let’s Talk About Last Night – Project Glow Noise

“Dear PoPville,

I live in Eckington and have been blasted all day with heavy base and electronic music from the Project GLOW festival over at RFK festival grounds, which is ~3.5mi away. Somehow didn’t hear it yesterday, and it goes on until at least 11pm tonight (Sunday) which feels kind of nuts to me. I can’t even imagine how loud it is for neighborhoods even closer.

Some cursory googling shows complaints from a similar concert in 2011, and apparently RFK stadium / festival grounds are a special event venue and therefor exempt from the city’s noise ordinances. Have you heard from any other frustrated readers? Do you know who we can contact to complain? There have to be ways for them to angle speakers so as not to blast the city, though no matter where it’s angled it will be disruptive to someone… or at least turn down the volume and certainly the bass, at least this late on a Sunday night… it’s too late to do anything about this one, but it would truly suck if this becomes an ongoing thing, and the city officials should really know how disruptive this is even so far away.”

and

“I’m in Mount Rainier, Md, where the bass is reverberating the city and caused quite a commotion through all the Facebook groups on the noise. I would be curious if DC government has any comment on allowing a concert that is so loud the noise is traveling more than 4 miles away.”

and

“The Mt. Rainier listserve and Facebook groups are alight with activity after two solid days of bass rattling our windows from Project Glow, a solid 4-5 miles away. It sent MtR police all over the place looking for the source of the music last night and again today, until they realized it was coming from RFK stadium. The music ended at 11pm on a Sunday night and there is just no way it was within the correct decibel levels for us to hear it so clearly so far away (folks in Hyattsville and Woodridge also complained). How did the festival get the authority to be SO LOUD and go on so late (an hour beyond the DC noise ordinance)? Was it as awful for those who lived closer to RFK? We have never experienced noise flow like this, but it truly sucked for two solid days/nights; no one could escape the constant bass.”

“I’m about 3 miles away in the northernmost part of Eckington, and we could all hear it inside our homes. I’ve got noise-resistant glass windows too. People in those tweets were in Bloomingdale, Brookland, Woodridge, 8.8 miles away in MD, University of MD, Cheverly, MD, a a boat in SW DC, Brentwood, and Eastern Market. It seemed unusually loud for a live performance.”

“any clue how far through DC and surrounds the base of #ProjectGLOWFest is being heard? 3.5 miles from RFK and it sounds like it’s next door in NE DC and Mt Rainer, MD”

“It’s so bad all the way in petworth.”

“Feeling/hearing it all day in Truxton Circle”

“Feeling and hearing it 4.5mi away in Woodridge.”

“It’s weirdly not as bad on the Hill as it should be. Has to be cloud cover/weather features distorting the sound strangely.”

“3 miles and its shaking my windows (for 2 days). And kids in DC schools (Elementary, Middle, HS) have standardized tests tomorrow. It’s nearly 9, bedtime, and still going. Guess kids throughout DC (at least less wealthy areas) are going to bomb their tests.”