As new Louisville noise policy goes into effect, hundreds fear harm to live music

For over 25 years, Cheryl Price has been a performer in Louisville.

She’s a member of Most Wanted, a cover band that plays pop and rock songs from the 1970s to the 2020s. The music scene in town is where she finds community, she said.

“Music is my life. It’s my heartbeat. It’s my soul. I’m not getting rich off of this and I’m not getting famous. I love my town and my people and my bars,” she said. “It’s been the core of my life, besides my family.”

That’s why a new Louisville Alcohol and Beverage Control policy to crack down on noise and issue $2,500 fines to businesses without warning sparked “alarm” in her about the future of live music in Louisville.

She is among more than 300 people – many of them musicians and fans – who have signed a petition over the past several weeks to fight the policy, saying it could negatively affect the city’s economy and nightlife.

Metro ABC announced the new policy for restaurant and bar noise violations in Jefferson County at an Aug. 6 community meeting hosted by Metro Councilmen Ben Reno-Weber, D-8th, and Andrew Owen, D-9th. The meeting followed a shooting on Bardstown Road outside the Afrokanza nightclub. Hundreds of residents showed up, and several expressed concern about noise from bars.

The policy is set to take effect in September, according to an Aug. 8 statement from the Democratic Caucus.

The announcement got the “biggest applause of the night,” Owen said then.

But ABC Director Bradley Silveria said the policy had been in the works for months – long before the shooting or the community meeting.

“I have been planning on changing this policy since I became the director in February 2023,” he said in early August. The decision comes from “the amount of frustration that I’ve heard from citizens since the mayor appointed me as the ABC Administrator.”

But some are afraid it will have cultural consequences without reducing crime.

“If it’s going to be enforced the way that they are saying it will, it’s certainly going to destroy live music in our city,” Price said. “Where are the statistics that say that loud music leads to crime? How are they connecting those dots? Because I’ve never seen a study that says that.”

Owen has said tightly enforcing the noise level limits is just one tool available to “dial back the temperature” of the area.

“It’s just that when people drink to excess, sometimes that kind of violence comes out, and it’s at least tangentially related to the bars and restaurants,” Owen said. “We’re doing everything we can with the tools that we have to see if we can find some solutions until there is a longer-term solution.”

Meanwhile, Brandon Bowden, a communications specialist with the ABC, said live music in Louisville is not going anywhere.

“Outdoor music in Louisville is not a thing of the past,” he said. “We want the businesses in our community to be successful and we want our licensees to take the noise they make into consideration for their neighbors, and we are asking that they turn down the volume if noise can be plainly heard over 50 feet from the premises.

“We don’t want outdoor performances to halt, and we hope that they continue while following the regulations set forth in our city ordinance.”

Reno-Weber said: “No one is trying to ambush places or punish musicians, particularly in the Highlands. We love and value our live music.”

What Louisville’s noise ordinance impacts

The Louisville ABC is using ordinance 99.01 from the Metro Code of Ordinances to enforce this policy. It states that unreasonably harsh, loud or excessive noise is, “Any manufactured noise plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from its point of origination or emanation.”

However, Bowden said, “I have verified that for the purposes of enforcement, the noise will be measured from the premises and not necessarily the speaker.”

This policy does not impact outdoor concerts, music festivals, sports arenas, amusement parks and other venues, Bowden said, because they are exempt under 99.03.

The ABC standards do not have an exact decibel limit. The noise policy does not target a specific time of day, either, Bowden said. This is concerning to some musicians.

“If you get fined that much as a business for one violation with no warning at any time of day, how will there be any amplified loud music in the city?” Price said.

About 80% of the shows Most Wanted plays are in bars. Since the noise policy became stricter, Price has moved the location of one of their upcoming shows.

Her band was originally supposed to be playing at a popular bar on Bardstown Road known for its live music, but “they have completely stopped having live music at that place,” she said.

Councilman: Policy targets ‘serial bad actors’

Vicki Miller is a 65-year-old musician who has been living and performing in Louisville since the 80s. She is in a three-person acoustic group and is also worried about what the new policy could mean for businesses.

“These clubs are not making money hand over fist,” she said.

Rather than risk a $2,500 fine, Miller is concerned that venues will decide it isn’t worth having music at all.

“It reminds me of when I was in school when one person did something bad and so they made a rule for everybody,” she said.

But Reno-Weber said the ordinance itself hasn’t changed – and that the stricter standards are actually allowing ABC to better target the “serial bad actors” who continuously receive noise violations but do not change their practices. He added that most neighbors in the Highlands only have concerns when the music is loud during the night.

“I’ve gotten approximately 100 complaints about one of the venues in our district,” Reno-Weber said. “Ninety percent of them start with, ‘We don’t care until it’s 10 p.m.”

The policy was created and is being enforced by the ABC, but “they’re not going and looking for places to cite,” Reno-Weber said. The enforcement is complaint-driven, he said, and “no one is trying to go after a show that ends at 10 p.m.”

Bowden added that most venues are already meeting the ordinance guidelines.

“We want the musicians of Louisville to continue performing, while also complying with these noise standards,” he said. “As I know we’ve said previously, most of our licensees are already in compliance with these regulations and should have no issue.”

But Price and Miller aren’t convinced.

“Anything amplified, you’re going to hear within 50 feet,” Miller said.

Reno-Weber is encouraging any bar or restaurant that is worried about the fines to contact the ABC to ensure they are operating in accordance with the ordinance.

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Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @ellie_mccrary.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: New Louisville noise policy raises fears in music community