John MacDonald: Don't let the fun police spoil the dance party

Get a grip. That’s my advice today to the people complaining about the music festival planned for the area near Bottle Lake Forest, in Christchurch, over the new year period. Because I think the organisers are treating you very well and going above and beyond. The Rolling Meadows festival is normally held at Waipara, north of the city, but the organisers hope to have it in Christchurch for the first time this year. And because it’s near people’s homes, there have been complaints and there’s even a petition doing the rounds, with people worried about the noise and disruption. The organisers have listened and they’ve done a couple of things. Which I’ll get to. When I was thinking about where I stood on this, I almost settled on the side of the residents, because of the numbers. The number of people expected to attend and the number of vehicles that are expected in the area over the three-day period. They’re not insignificant. Up to 10,000 people are expected to attend, with 5,000 expected to camp on site, and 4,000 vehicles a day are expected on the only public access to the festival car park. So there’s going to be a lot of people converging on that area over those three days from December 29 to 31. But what I came back to is it’s just for three days. Three days when quite a few of the locals are likely to be away on holiday, anyway. Three days when the organisers are going to be bending over backwards to try and keep these people happy. First of all, they’ve offered to pay for alternative accommodation for residents. They’re also going to hire people to patrol the streets, deal with rubbish and keep homes safe. What’s more, it’s understood they’ve gone even further and have also offered to finish the performances earlier each night and reduce the noise levels. That’s still not good enough, it seems. Which might be making the organisers a little bit nervous because they’re yet to get consent from the city council. They say that if that doesn’t happen, they’ll just go back to having it in Waipara. Sure, the music blasting late into the night might be a pain in the backside if you’re not into it, but it’s just three nights. Good on the Rolling Meadows organisers for going the extra mile. Some people though, will never be satisfied.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.