The owner of a new, $90 million amphitheater in Colorado Springs is pushing back against hundreds of public noise complaints by releasing test results that show the venue is in compliance with its permit and questioning who the complaints are coming from.
The 8,000-seat Ford Amphitheater — previously known as Sunset Amphitheater before its naming rights were formalized in June — opened Aug. 9 with three consecutive nights of concerts from multiplatinum Colorado act OneRepublic. By Aug. 14, city officials said their anonymous reporting app had received around 170 complaints about the volume of the outdoor performances.
More than 400 new complaints were also registered after the next weekend’s concerts, Aug. 16-18, during and after sets from The Beach Boys, Walker Hayes, and Iration and Pepper (respectively), according to the city. The venue is scheduled to host shows this weekend from Lauren Daigle (Friday, Aug. 23) and Primus (Saturday, Aug. 24).
“I am in no way dismissive of people’s concerns,” said JW Roth, who owns Ford Amphitheater and its parent company, Venu (formerly Notes Live). “But when we made the decision to build this and started the process with the city, 50 or so residents hated the idea of it being there. So I’m guessing those same 50 people put the opening date on their calendar and circled it so they could call in and complain about the noise.
“We’ve been tracking more than 80,000 positive impressions online from the past two weeks, so it’s frustrating to have this be so lopsided,” he added. “I’ve personally heard nothing but raves.”
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