Sound check: Beach Road Weekend preps for 3 days of music

Sound checks were taking place at the Beach Road Weekend venue in Vineyard Haven on Wednesday and Thursday, ahead of this weekend’s music festival.

Joe Chambers, doing public relations for the event, said that decibel readings were being recorded from various locations nearby — both baseline sound levels and festival-volume sound levels — in an effort to protect the surrounding area from sound traveling from the main stages.

Following last year’s noise complaints from some residents, Chambers and event founder Adam Epstein say they are taking additional measures this year.

Chambers is hoping a change to the festival’s speaker distribution will also help to control traveling sound. Instead of switching back and forth between the two main stages like they did last year, this year crew will evenly distribute performance sound to all speakers from either stage, which Chambers hopes will create “a more balanced sound across all speakers” and throughout the festival grounds. Most speakers are positioned at the stages in a way that will spread the sound out around the entire field.

The place with the best sound? Chambers says it’s the ADA viewing platform, located directly in the center of the field.

Chamber said that they were in good shape on Thursday to be ready for when gates open on Friday at 11 am. Main stage music will begin at 12 pm and continue ‘till 8pm, after which local bands will play on a smaller stage with reduced speaker power.

Ahead of the weekend, the festival grounds were busy and bustling. Upwards of 200 workers came from around the country, some of them local, to assemble the festival grounds, with vendor structures, porta potties, three stages, lighting and sound systems, a backstage artist lounge area, and a catering tent that provides three meals a day for working festival crew.

“It all comes up quick, and it all comes down even quicker,” said Chambers. “We’re building a small city.”

Some musicians, like Patti Smith and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, are already on the Island ahead of the festival, says Chambers. “We love to help them out to get the full island experience. You might see a couple people around town,” he said.

Chambers said he doesn’t anticipate festival closures or delays, despite the rain in the forecast. “We have our own systems in place internally for how to deal with rain,” he said. Last year an inch-and-a-half of rain came down on Friday night, flooding the field and knocking out the electrical systems and metal detectors at the gate. Saturday’s early acts were canceled to prepare the festival site for a late opening.

“We are not anticipating any kind of cancellations due to weather. We’re storming ahead so to speak, no pun intended,” he said.

Festival organizers will work with local emergency fire and police personnel in the case of inclement weather. “We’re doing our best to keep everybody safe and have a great time,” said Chambers.

There will be police presence throughout the weekend at Five Corners to help direct traffic. Lagoon Pond Road will be closed to driving traffic during festival hours, but authorities will work with businesses and residents to make sure they can still get where they need to go.