Selfish

I know, without a doubt that if I ride with one group, especially if there are only 25 people, that it will be hard. It’s because of how hard I know the ride will be that I am not keen to join that group. despite this I still considered going for a bike ride this morning, until noisy neighbours made it impossible for me to have an early night.

There is a bad habit among alcoholics that they need to make noise at night without considering that others may want to sleep. I use the label noot because the people are alcoholics but rather because, in my experience people who behave in a toxic, selfish manner, are usually fuelled by alcohol. They only made noise until midnight but that still scuppered any chance of me going for that ride.

In the good old days noisy music festivals made sense, because technology was not what it is today. There was no choice but to build huge speaker stacks with huge amounts of power, to deafen an entire crowd of festival goers. It was also a different age, where attitudes to noise pollution were different.

In the 21st century, as people are crammed closer and closer together in villages, towns and cities, so the need to control noise pollution should increase. In summer, if you live Nyon there are two awful festivals. One of them is the Caribana and the other is the Paléo. Both of them make noise for four or five days, from the sound checks at lunch time to the concerts that go until 0200-0300.

First things First, I have had a lot of fun at festivals, and I have volunteered for a few. What I object to is the noise pollution. In the 21st century we could avoid that noise pollution, so we should.

And now for the rant, now that I have told you I like festivals, when they don’t get in the way of other peoples’ desire for silence, for sleep.

As I write this I am in a sleep deprived state because I was unable to sleep according to my circadian rhythm due to a music festival. The sound engineers that work at music festivals are pretty dumb, so they build powerful stacks of speakers that are so loud that you need hearing protection at the music festival, and the surrounding countryside is filled with noise pollution.