St. Lambert residents are fed up with feeling the noise every weekend there's a concert at Montreal's Jean Drapeau Park.
Several weekends each summer the park is host to tens of thousands of people attending outdoor concerts, and the music can easily be heard across the river and in the homes of the suburban bedroom community.
Residents have pleaded with the city of Montreal to turn down the volume, but to no avail.
Last month St. Lambert took Montreal and concert promoter Evenko to court in an attempt to restrict noise levels after 7 p.m., but a Quebec Superior Court judge decided not to issue a temporary injunction, saying this wasn't an urgent matter.
Now the mayor of St. Lambert, Alain Depatie, is hoping a personal approach might convince Montreal to make some changes.
He's invited the mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, to attend a picnic this weekend -- while Heavy MTL is in full roar.
"We don't want to cancel all the shows, we don't want Montreal or Evenko to stop the shows, want them to just reduce the noise levels," said Depatie.
On Thursday Coderre declined the invitation.
"I'd prefer to bodysurf the crowd," quipped Coderre.
Marielle Blain said this past weekend's Osheaga concert was simply unbearable at times.
She loves to work in her garden, but had to give up and go inside because she couldn't hold a conversation.
"We cannot understand each other without yelling at each other here on this ground," said Blain.
"Osheaga was so terrible that the vibration was there in the stomach."
Residents say that when the wind is strong enough they can feel the music inside their homes, so even retreating indoors isn't enough.
"It's pretty difficult to go to sleep before 11, but it's not possible because inside the house we hear the bass, and the bass is the worst part," said Benoit Germain.
The city of Montreal says it only received four complaints during Osheaga this past weekend, but St. Lambert says it received many more.
