The Edmonton Expo Centre hosted the city’s first rave this weekend since a proposed moratorium on electronic dance parties was voted down.
About 4,000 people attended the Boodang Outdoor Music Festival.
READ MORE: Edmonton committee votes against moratorium on raves
The two-day event was the first electronic music festival since the city voted against a ban proposed by the Edmonton Police Service in June.
“There’s a harm-reduction team we’ve brought on board, as well as Odyssey Medical, which has been amazing. [We have a] much larger presence in medical staff,” event manager Viet Nguyen said. “[We’re] just trying to bring up the level of care on-site.”
READ MORE: Report calling for moratorium on Edmonton raves draws comparison with ‘Footloose’
While organizers called the event a success, residents complained about the noise.
Emmy Stuebing recorded video of her oven vibrating inside her home on the opposite side of Wayne Gretzky Drive.
Stuebing said she understands residents who live near the Expo Centre should expect to deal with some noise, but the sound from the festival was excessive.
“From 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., my house was booming and it didn’t seem fair or neighbourly,” Stuebing said. “I would never be allowed — if I had a party where the bass was booming like that, the police would be here and I would be shut down.”
“We need to adjust our systems to find a tolerable amount of sound leakage into neighbourhoods,” Nguyen said. “Otherwise, I feel like we’re working with them.”
READ MORE: ‘Immediate moratorium’ on raves recommended to Edmonton City Council
The Expo Centre said technical adjustments were made to the speaker system to reduce the sound for Sunday’s event.