About 50 Tisbury and Island residents gathered at the town’s senior center late Thursday afternoon to express their thoughts on the Beach Road Weekend, a three-day music festival held in August. Unlike the praise-fest that festival promoter Adam Epstein enjoyed at an October select board meeting, when business leaders and concertgoers provided feedback to the select board, comments from folks at the senior center, several of whom were abutters to Veterans Memorial Park, were critical. Much of the criticism revolved around the negative impacts from the concert’s acoustics. However, public safety, waste, revenue loss, and liability issues were also raised.
Epstein, after hearing the criticism, said he’s always trying to improve, and also said he is willing to amend his contract with the town, which is in force for two more years.
Gretchen Snyder, who lives on Lagoon Pond Road, told the board, Epstein, and other officials she wanted to see soundproofing because, she said, “my house shakes.”
“My house shook too,” Eric Poeler said. Poeler, who lives on Cook Road, suggested that with a “harmonic system,” sound from the festival could be better managed. “Now, it’s expensive, but it can be done,” Poeler said.
Martha Yukovich, who lives on William Street, said she wasn’t around for the concert “because I knew I couldn’t stand it.” Yukovich said she and her husband left the Vineyard and came back to what she described as “enormous complaints” on William Street. Yukovich said their next-door neighbors told them “their whole house shook and rattled — vibrated for three days in a row.” Yukovich said one of that couple has serious medical problems that the concert somehow impacted negatively, and another neighbor “said every picture in their house was sideways from the rattling.”
Town moderator Deborah Medders, who lives on State Road and spoke in an unofficial capacity, started off by saying she loves music, and comes from a family of musicians. Medders said she believed along with herself, Tisbury taxpayers want to support events that benefit Tisbury’s businesses.
“Because as they benefit, we as residential property taxpayers — we benefit,” Medders said.
Medders said the nine-acre park is ill-suited to be the location for the festival, especially in the event of an emergency.
“Within the nine acres, there are five-plus acres of usable land known as the playing fields and playground,” Medders said. “For this year’s event, four sides of that five acres [were] surrounded by structures, gated entrance[s], porta-potties, vendor booths, two-story seating, stages and screens, [and a] two-story operational tower for sound and visual equipment.” Medders said in the center of all this “is another two-story wooden seating area, with stage and sound equipment behind it.” Altogether, the structures reduced the area to three acres, Medders said, and made for what was no longer an open space — ”it’s bifurcated by structures in the center.”
Medders then said of the four entrances and exits, which have various widths and illumination, two were unidentified and also obstructed.
After giving her description of the venue, Medders asked the board to envision “10,000-plus” people in a “panic situation” trying to flee.
Medders noted those people fleeing faced narrow streets, wetlands, and structures. She also noted emergency vehicles could have a challenging time getting to the scene if met with thousands of fleeing people.
Last, Medders said that the event presents legal liability for the town.
Jessica Tartell, director of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services’ Chicken Alley Thrift Shop, said two days of closure due to the music festival costs the shop about $20,000 in sales. Tartell said the shop can’t take donations during those days, and it’s too loud to be in the shop. “We lost several paintings that fell off the walls due to the vibrations of the concert,” Tartell said. She also said, “There’s a lot of ambiguity about when the road is closed.” Tartell said her staff and volunteers got “a number” of road passes, but not enough of them. Tartell said the parking lot at the park was closed too long, and she noted that a “great number” of Chicken Alley customers use that lot.
Tartell said the Lagoon Pond closure lasted much longer than was predicted. She said concertgoers parked bicycles at Chicken Alley, despite no-trespassing signs and fencing.
“We are very much in opposition to this concert,” she said.
Ben Robinson, who has an office close to the park, said part of the restoration process of the grass after the festival included an application of topsoil. Robinson said it rained soon after the topsoil was applied, and he later found bits of glass revealed by the rain. He held up a shard of glass for the board to see. Robinson argued the Field Fund previously did a better job maintaining the grass, and its work was free.
Epstein and his landscape contractor, in emails to the town, have denied that topsoil used had glass in it. Epstein also noted that no glass containers were allowed at the event.
Not everybody had something critical to say about the festival. One person was critical of those who expressed criticisms. Chef Ben DeForest, who participated in the festival, described many of the complaints he’s heard as “not in my backyard” issues.
“Anybody who’s complaining about this who has been to a Celtics game, who has been to Fenway Park, that’s been to Gillette, who has been to a concert, who has been to a county fair somewhere, who’s been to some large event in another place, they’re guilty of the same thing that they’re accusing others of doing. You’ve gone somewhere else to see an event. It’s Vineyard Haven’s turn. It’s a great event done with incredible detail.”
Kim Hilliard of Oak Bluffs complimented Epstein, saying, “What you’ve pulled off, sir, was amazing, amazing. I don’t know how you did it, but you did it. You pulled it off.”
Hilliard said she had trouble with the scale, location, and municipal burdens of the festival and also with the sonic impact of it. She said she was driving, and at one point caught in traffic, in Vineyard Haven when Beck was on stage. She described the sound as inescapable.
“I rolled up my windows,” she said. “There was no escaping it. My car was vibrating. The ground was vibrating.” She said she developed a headache that lasted three days.
Laurie David characterized the festival as having an unacceptable fuel and carbon footprint and an unacceptable waste footprint.
In a previous interview with The Times, Epstein acknowledged that the festival can and should do better with recycling, and vowed to make improvements.
Town administrator Jay Grande said “no event goes perfectly,” and acknowledged that “issues and concerns” have been raised, and that the town takes “very seriously.” He went on to say, “We can’t not address them, and keep moving forward like we didn’t hear them.”
“I don’t hide from things and I’m not perfect,” Epstein said. “We are all always trying to improve. We’re always noticing and hearing where we fall short. But you never get it right and perfect the first time, but you can get better with experience. And we want the opportunity to continue to improve, to reduce that footprint, to improve the sound, to improve the condition of the field, to be a part of those processes, and to involve you all in those processes. I am not perfect, and I need your feedback in order to reach that level.”
Select board member John Cahill suggested that what the audience wanted to know is what the next steps will be. Grande said the festival promoter must address the festival’s operational and land-use issues. Grande said he expected Epstein, who was given a three-year contract by the town ahead of this year’s festival, to have a conversation with the town’s department heads and to address the issues brought forth, and then bring something back to the select board.
Grande said the board is going to then have to weigh the pros and cons of the festival and its occurrence on public land.
Grande said he felt it was important that the select board meet on the issue before the end of the calendar year (as opposed to the fiscal year).
“I assure you that everything that was said tonight was heard,” select board chair Roy Cutrer said.
