Farm Fest welcomed dozens of heavy metal rock bands during the weekend to a three-day festival at the Vankleek Hill fairgrounds. It was the second annual event and a debate played out on social media over the weekend, with split reviews welcoming this relatively new event to Vankleek Hill while others felt the genre’s volume was an intrusion.
Organizers had secured permission to extend the event beyond the normal 11 p.m. noise curfew to 12:30 a.m. for both Friday and Saturday evenings.
Police received one complaint about noise after midnight on June 9 but OPP Constable Mario Gratton says organizers complied immediately and reduced the volume of music when police attended the event to follow up on the complaint.
A resident who lives nearby said the music stopped at 11 p.m. on Friday evening, but the following evening, the music was still going at 1:30 a.m. early Sunday morning.
Organizer Steven Deslauriers said the overtime was the result of technical problems and that he had not intended to run overtime.
“I would like to take this opportunity to let the people living in surrounding homes that I did not mean to keep any of you up a little past 12:30 Saturday night. The event was scheduled to run until 12:30 a.m. however due to a technical problem earlier in the day, the last band started about 20 minutes late. There were a few hundred people watching 2019 Juno nominees “Beyond Creation” play their new album in its entirety. With the music past the curfew, police were close by and once the band finished they came by and we shut everything down instantly,” says Deslauriers.
On Sunday, Farm Fest included a car show and an Alice in Chains tribute band, which played until 2 p.m.
About 500 people attended over the weekend. Deslauriers said Farm Fest will return next year with the support of the community.
