All to prevent hearing damage. The upside-down world, according to the men of carnival group Veul Gère. They simply turned the volume down a notch at their concert at Poppodium 013 in Tilburg earlier this month.
As a regular visitor to 013, Wim Bruggeman of Veul Gère knows all too well how loud the music often is at the Tilburg pop temple. “Over there, they have a giant sound system. All within the guidelines, but you can’t hear each other anymore. If you want to say something to someone, you really have to shout in their ear.”
And so Wim and his mates decided to take a slightly different approach themselves. “It’s kind of a crazy situation, where we all have to wear earplugs because the sound is so loud, isn’t it? Then, in my opinion, you’re missing the point. That’s why we chose to turn the volume down a bit.”
Now don’t think the volume button has been completely pushed back. “It was about a few decibels at most. It really doesn’t have to be a chat café either, lol.” Still, that small difference already yields a lot of gain. For example, an increase of 10 decibels already almost feels like a doubling of the noise level.
Despite the successful party, Wim is under no illusion that the volume is now massively turned down everywhere. “We still have the idea that we have to drown each other out. Then again, a café owner wants to rise above their neighbor.”
With dire consequences. “If you already have such loud music in front of you at nine in the morning during Carnival, you’re actually already done with it by mid-afternoon. We just have to make sure it’s a little more balanced.”
