Gigs at one of Australia’s most famous landmarks are about to get louder, with one noted concert-goer throwing his weight behind the move.
Along with lifting capacity limits at the Sydney Opera House, sound regulation for late-night concerts at the harbour venue’s forecourt will be raised to be the same as settings for daytime gigs.
NSW ministers labelled the tweaks as common sense and said sound restrictions would no longer be determined by residents of the ‘Toaster’ – the nearby luxury apartment building whose residents have regularly complained about noise.
Notably, the Opera House copped a $15,000 fine after residents complained about the volume of a performance from Florence and The Machine in 2015.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has styled himself as a music lover, said he’s seen the English band on the forecourt, along with American rockers The Pixies.
“I’m a member of the fun faction,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“The Opera House is an asset that should be maximised.
“We should be using it and it should be bringing in economic activity as well as joy to those people who get to go to the concert or the play or whatever other activity is taking place.”
It’s not a new issue. In 2016, Crowded House frontman Neil Finn mock the complaining residents throughout a run of shows, including encouraging the crowd to try to wake up the Toaster’s most famous occupant, conservative broadcaster Alan Jones.
“Over the decades it became a Sydney sport to move in next door to a pub and then campaign to close it down,” Arts and Night-time Economy Minister John Graham said.
“We are putting an end to that and the same approach should apply to the world’s greatest performance venue.
“The Sydney Opera House is everyone’s house and these changes make sure the experience matches the epic setting.”
The state government also lifted the maximum capacity for major events in the forecourt from 6000 to 7000 people.
Event hours were also lifted across all days of the week.
Prominent Australian singer-songwriter Dan Sultan said he found it difficult to sum up how much his own headline shows at the Opera House forecourt meant to him.
“At that time it was the largest crowd for one of my own concerts, that was the best my band had ever sounded and performed,” he said.
“It is truly a bucket-list show for any artist anywhere in the world.”
Other tweaks include letting community facilities like town halls host pop-up events without development applications, and letting commercial buildings and car parks more easily run live music events.
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