SOUTH DEERFIELD — With Tree House Brewing Co.’s Summer Stage concert series in full swing, Select Board members described a quieter start to the season as the venue follows new rules this year, though complaints from residents continue.
In December, the Select Board laid out new conditions in Tree House’s entertainment license, including a 10 p.m. end time and a limit of no more than two concerts per week in September, along with a ban on concerts on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27, the first days of school for Frontier Regional School students.
Under other conditions, Tree House’s sound engineer or production manager must “make all reasonable efforts” to follow the World Health Organization’s “Global standard for safe listening venues & events,” which recommends a 100-decibel sound level limit. According to MDHearing, hand dryers and motorcycles roar at 100 decibels.
To help lower the noise, the entertainment license also required Tree House’s public address (PA) system company, Klondike Sound LLC, to conduct a sound study “to determine effective means of mitigating low-frequency sound waves (propagation) during outdoor concerts” and report the findings to the Select Board before the 2027 concert season. So far, the brewery has adjusted the positioning of the subwoofer speakers to reduce the intensity of low-frequency sound waves, or the booming bass reverberations residents that described in noise complaints during last year’s concert season.
According to Assistant Town Administrator Greg Snedeker, the town has received at least six noise complaints since the first Summer Stage performance, a similar number to the start of the concert season last year.
Select Board member Trevor McDaniel said he visited Tree House during a recent concert to check out the changes.
“I don’t have a house right there, so I’m not here to dispute what they hear or what they didn’t or what was different,” McDaniel said at last week’s Select Board meeting, referring to residents’ frustrations with the noise. “I know every concert’s different, but we were able to stand in front of the stage and have a decent conversation back and forth — we weren’t yelling at each other.”
Along with the positioning of the subwoofers, which were mounted above the ground to reduce reverberation, McDaniel described the noise “nulling out” behind the stage and toward the edge of the outdoor concert area where he “could certainly hold very easily a conversation.”
“While I understand it’s not going to be perfect [and] it’s definitely not going to be a solution for everybody, I think [Tree House has] certainly tried … to lessen that sound,” he said. “I think they’ve made a big effort. … We’ll keep trying, and that’s all we can do.”
Resident Mary Andrianopoulos disagreed with McDaniel’s comments and voiced frustration with the sound.
“I don’t know where you were sitting at the concert, but I invite you to my house, which is approximately a half a mile away from the Tree House brewery,” Andrianopoulos said. “My walls were vibrating, and with the windows shut, I couldn’t hear the NBA finals on TV.”
She suggested Tree House build a “sound wall” and end the concerts at either 8 or 9 p.m.
“I find the music totally unacceptable,” Andrianopoulos said. “I find it disruptive and I think it’s polluting the environment.”
Selectboard Chair Blake Gilmore added that residents have described to him quiet concert nights, as well as one performance growing louder as the night went on.
“I’m sure that we can to talk to Tree House,” Gilmore continued, “and see what’s going on and get an explanation of those issues.”
