Saint-Lambert braces for closer encounter with Osheaga

Saint-Lambert residents within earshot of Montreal's Gilles-Villeneuve racetrack are bracing themselves for the Osheaga music and arts festival this weekend.

Noise from the three-day festival has been the subject of numerous complaints from residents over the years and even led to a court battlethat pittedthe municipality of Saint-Lambert against the City of Montreal andthe festival's promoter, Evenko.

This year, Osheaga will be even closer to Saint-Lambert construction at its usual Parc Jean-Drapeau site on le Sainte-Hlne has the seven-stage festival happening this year and next year at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuveon le Notre-Dame.

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The festival's promise of amped-up fun in the sun for an estimated 45,000 music fans is one Saint-Lambert resident Nguyen Tin Buu Chau has learned he can live without.

"It's never fun to have music that you did not choose imposed on you," said Nguyen, who lives less than a kilometre from the festival site.

Even worse, he said, is having that music imposed "for hours and hours."

"It's extremely disturbing," he said.

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It's a concern Osheaga organizers say they're taking seriously. To mitigate the sound this year, they've installed six delay towers that will direct sound from one checkpoint to the other so the sound isn't blaring all at once.

"We have spent a tonne of money on technology trying to figure out ways to make the sound not travel as far," said Nick Farkas, vice president of Evenko, the company behind Osheaga.

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It might take more than that, however, to convince Saint-Lambert residents like Nguyen.

A punk rock festival at the racetrack last weekend has him fearing the worst.

"It's not enough to say that I'm doing my best, they have to say I'm doing the maximum to solve this problem," he said.

However, Nguyen said he'll reserve judgment until the results are in.

Organizers say the noise issue will be permanently resolved in 2019, when Osheaga moves to its new venue back on leSainte-Hlne.

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