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[Lee Douglas]

You are there voluntarily and of your own accord.  The door is right there and you may leave at any time you see fit and for any reason.  Your claim may be limited to a ticket(s) refund because you decided to leave because you felt that the SPL level was unsafe (best backed up by a measurement and a reference to an OSHA standard), not because you voluntarily stood there subjecting yourself to unsafe levels for three hours.  Even a dog will spit out food if it's too hot.

[Chris Hindle]

You are there voluntarily and of your own accord.  The door is right there and you may leave at any time you see fit and for any reason.  Your claim may be limited to a ticket(s) refund because you decided to leave because you felt that the SPL level was unsafe (best backed up by a measurement and a reference to an OSHA standard), not because you voluntarily stood there subjecting yourself to unsafe levels for three hours.  Even a dog will spit out food if it's too hot.

Once did a "street festival" for a local community center. Kind of a run-down section of the city.
The levels were entirely reasonable, as it was in a residential neighborhood.
The headliners are on, and I see this young woman with a child in her arms, standing right in front of the PA. (Head in a sub kind of in front of the PA.)
I turned off that side, and instructed Monitor Dude to have a word with her. She moved off, and I restored the PA.
20 minutes later, she's back, still with infant. This time, there was a cop nearby. I shut down the PA on that side (again), and asked the nice guy with a gun if he could escort Miss Not-too-swift and her kiddie away from the big pile of noise.

Some people won't protect themselves, I feel it is up to us to not knowingly put the audience at risk, Now, that attitude HAS cost me work, but I have my standards.
Chris.

[Tim McCulloch]

You got me curious, a 20 minute perusal of Live Nation and Ticketmaster purchase agreements I could not find any language about sound levels or potential injury from exposure.

The case from 10 years ago - I'm grasping at memory cells - IIRC the court basically said "if you buy a ticket you know what you're getting into".  The father's response was "I didn't buy a ticket" and the court responded "you were free to exit the building."

As for info on tickets - tickets constitute a contract so the less explicit info on it, the better for the show, venue, artist and ticketing agency.  Often it's "Admit One" and if you are allowed into the building the contract is fulfilled.

[Justice C. Bigler]

I think the bigger issue here, with this show, or shows like this, will be the municipal sound level limits. Especially since the particular show that I am working on for The Roots is an out door show.

If you're bringing an A level PA rig with more subs than God, and you're clipping the amps and limiters, chances are the actual SPL levels are going to be way over whatever arbitrary and uninformed dB limit the city council or governing body has set.

Not as big of an issue with a stadium, theatre, or other indoor venue as those SPL ordinances are generally intended for outdoor shows that would offend neighbors and others who have no control over whether they want to hear the show or not.

I'm not actually sure if Tulsa has a municipal SPL ordinance. I should look that up.

[Riley Casey]

This is a problem waiting for a better lawyer, thats all.  There are a wealth of environmental pollution cases and industrial hazard cases that this could be patterned on but there has to be some motivation for the lawyers that go there and that motivation is cash at the end versus time and effort to accomplish a win in court.  Apparently not there yet.

You are there voluntarily and of your own accord.  The door is right there and you may leave at any time you see fit and for any reason.  Your claim may be limited to a ticket(s) refund because you decided to leave because you felt that the SPL level was unsafe (best backed up by a measurement and a reference to an OSHA standard), not because you voluntarily stood there subjecting yourself to unsafe levels for three hours.  Even a dog will spit out food if it's too hot.

[Mark Cadwallader]

OSHA sound level regulation, IIRC, are an exposure-based standard. The regs require actions for a certain level for a specified duration per 8 hour work shift - measured with a dosimeter - not peak levels.  Without a dosimeter reading (which would be different depending on location of each audience member) I suspect that relying on OSHA regs (which are for occupational exposures, not for exposures to the general public) it would be quite difficult to prove neglience in a tort case.

[Tim McCulloch]

OSHA sound level regulation, IIRC, are an exposure-based standard. The regs require actions for a certain level for a specified duration per 8 hour work shift - measured with a dosimeter - not peak levels.  Without a dosimeter reading (which would be different depending on location of each audience member) I suspect that relying on OSHA regs (which are for occupational exposures, not for exposures to the general public) it would be quite difficult to prove neglience in a tort case.

I think Riley is correct and it's what I was alluding to when I said that 10 years is a long time, at least for civil claims.  What Chuck McGregor was talking about was the possibility of lodging criminal charges for physical battery via sound system.

OSHA regulations, while interesting and informative for worker exposure, are not likely to be the basis by which people will claim *criminal* actions in a one-off exposure situation.

[ProSoundWeb Community]