Coon Creek organizers turning down volume this year

After drawing several complaints about the volume at last year's Hampshire Coon Creek Country Days, organizers say changes to the stage set up and sound equipment this year should reduce loud music traveling into residential areas.

Village President Jeffrey Magnussen said the festival's organizing committee will rearrange the stage to face northwest - in the direction of cornfields and railroad tracks - instead of southeast. The southeastern arrangement amplified live music into residential areas of town, where homeowners about six blocks from Bruce Ream Memorial Park complained about the noise.

"People who live around the park are used to it," Magnussen said. "The fact that they live near the park, they know it is going to happen. But there are others who are not appreciative of the free music on their side of town."

Magnussen said the committee also ensured that a mechanism to control the volume would be implemented this year. Last year, he said, the sound engineer claimed there was no way to turn the volume down.

"People on the grounds also complained that it was just too loud," he said. "So for the enjoyment of everyone, we wanted to make sure that the volume could be turned down."

Trustee George Brust said the changes should placate the vast majority of the complaints the village and organizers received last year, but added some factors remain out of organizers' hands.

"You can't control the weather or the wind," Brust said. "When you're trying to entertain several hundred people - these musicians are not playing acoustic instruments, they're all electric - you can't turn the amplifiers off. No one will be able to hear the music."

The festival is scheduled July 29 to August 1 at Bruce Ream Memorial Park. More information is available at hampshirecooncreekdays.com.