TAMPA, FL (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — One month after Live Nation presented a letter to Hillsborough County officials certifying that the mandated 67-foot sound barrier wall had been installed at the Ford Amphitheatre, the new construction was put to the ultimate test.
The venue’s $2.6 million concert-muffling project was subjected to The Who, named “Loudest Band of All Time” by the Guinness Book of World Records, on Sunday, March 25, and reportedly succeeded at its duties.
The concert did not draw a single noise complaint from the shed’s usually concerned neighbors. For a venue that lodged more than 400 noise complaints in its short three-years of operation, the new wall appears to work.
“I’m delighted,” Wilson Rogers, SVP of Live Nation, told the St. Petersburg Times. “It was either build a wall or remain in court. I chose to build a wall.”
A lawsuit filed by the county against the venue operator cost more than $600,000 in legal fees while trying to get the amphitheater to comply with its proposed noise regulations. The sound retaining wall was devised as a compromise, and was completed on February 16th.
The county and Live Nation both had sound engineers testing sound levels during the Who concert, and data is currently being analyzed.
“If anyone was going to test the wall, it was going to be these guys, “Rich Tschantz, an attorney for the county’s Environmental Protection Commission, told the paper. “It’s got to be good news that we haven’t received complaints yet.”
Rogers said the lack of complaints is a success for both the shed and Live Nation, and that he is especially looking forward to a May 19th appearance by Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters.
“I’m going ot try to figure out how to light it up when he sings ‘Another Brick in the Wall,’” Rogers told the Times. “I’m glad it’s working, and I hope going forward our stay in Tampa is going to be good for everyone.” –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
