Covington to Cincinnati on outdoor concerts: Turn down the volume

Windows vibrate. Dishes rattle. Meetings are disrupted. And summer nights are punctuated with blaring music and more than the occasional F-word.

That’s what Covington has been telling Cincinnati since the summer of 2021, when the Andrew J Brady Music Center opened its outdoor stage at Downtown’s Smale Riverfront Park.

“The whole neighborhood was not pleased,” said Covington attorney Patrick Hughes.

Since then, letters and emails have flown across the Ohio River, with Covington continuing to ask the venue to turn down the volume and its operator, an arm of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, saying it has taken “all reasonable measures to address sound concerns.”

Most recently, last month, Covington’s mayor and four city commissioners reiterated their complaints and asked for a meeting to find a solution.

With Cincinnati Parks’ plan to spend another $4.5 million on-site upgrades at the venue, the Covington officials wrote in a Jan. 8 letter to Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long, “This is a perfect time to work together to fix this problem so that both cities can move forward knowing that no further disputes or legal action will arise.”

Hughes, the immediate past president of the Historic Licking Riverside Civic Association, believes the venue is violating laws on noise and nuisance.

“I’m anticipating there will be legal action if this is not resolved,” he said.

Stage faced Covington from the start

Music and Event Management Inc., the non-profit concert manager for the symphony, won the contract to build and operate Brady and its Icon Festival Stage in 2019 over two other bidders. From the start, the organization planned to point the stage toward the Ohio River.

The outdoor venue, with a capacity of 7,000, opened in July 2021 with the Foo Fighters as its first act. 

Covington noticed the noise “five minutes into the first concert,” said Valerie Newell, a resident of eight years. “Our houses were literally shaking. Everyone was just freaking out,” she said.

That August and September, neighbors hired a sound expert to record Icon stage concerts from one of their homes. They sent a 1:39-minute sample to Music and Event Management of performers’ profanity-laced chatter with audiences – “You are so f---ing great” and “You are f---ing beautiful’’ among the comments – saying the noise levels violated Cincinnati and Covington laws.

At their request, Covington officials amplified their complaints, with letters to and meetings with the symphony and Music and Event Management, as well as Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials. Their Jan. 8 letter addressed to Long was copied to 78 others, current and former members of the symphony's board of prominent Cincinnatians among them.

“Noise levels directed toward the city of Covington have remained at excessive levels,” the letter says, with attempts to find solutions “met with silence, apathy and continued inaction from CSO/MEMI.”

They've had no response to the letter, according to Covington Mayor Joe Meyer.

“We would hope that they would engage,” he said.

MegaCorp Pavilion's outdoor venue in neighboring Newport, by the way, doesn't bother Covington residents. The stage of that facility, which opened in August 2021, points toward the Campbell County Circuit Court building in Newport.

Icon operator lists ‘significant changes’

In Cincinnati, parks, city and county officials all have a stake in the Icon Festival Stage site.

Spokespersons for Parks and Hamilton County commissioners referred questions to the city, since it holds the contract with Music and Event Management.

City manager Long, through a spokesperson, said she was aware the organization "has been actively engaged with Covington officials and has made several adjustments at the venue to address noise concerns.”

Music and Event Management and the symphony have made “significant changes to the operation of events at the Icon Festival Stage” in response to complaints, Rosemarie Moehring, the organization's vice president of marketing, said in an email.

Among them, the organization has:

• Moved five scheduled Icon performances to either Brady or Riverbend Music Center, another Music and Event Management venue. That reduced the 2021 and 2022 lineups to six shows, with seven last year and this year's schedule yet to be released.

• Established sound limits, installed equipment and staff to monitor sound, and directed speakers downward to reduce sound from flowing over the river.

• Imposed 11 p.m. concert cutoffs.

• Rotated the stage and its sound system 20 degrees, toward Newport.

The venue is “in compliance with all applicable ordinances and permits,” Moehring’s email said.

‘Expect an impact’ from planned marina, too

Covington thinks more can be done.

Transparent sound barriers – like ones planned for sections of Interstate 75 as part of the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project – might help, Meyer said.

Hughes would like the Icon stage rotated 180 degrees, to face downtown Cincinnati.

Newell thinks sound consultants could offer solutions and prevent a lawsuit. “Let’s just have the experts tell us,” she said.

Covington officials fear more noise is on the way.

Cincinnati Parks wants a marina with a restaurant on downtown’s public landing and is working with a contractor that proposes it include a rooftop bar with live music.

“I would expect an impact,” said Lisa Sauer, current president of the historic district association.

The government should study potential disruptions in advance of a marina, Sauer and Meyer both said. The two were among about three dozen individuals – two-thirds in favor, one-third with concerns – who filed public comments about the project with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last December.

“We want a seat at the table so that our concerns, particularly the noise concerns, be addressed,” said Meyer.

Hughes fears the marina, like the Icon stage, won’t be a good neighbor to Covington.

“It’s one more way that Cincinnati is looking to pursue economic development gains without considering the surrounding neighbors,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Covington residents fighting Icon Festival Stage, MEMI on noise