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richard @[email protected] · 2026-06-18 · 09:03 UTC

On Caribana’s Noise Pollution and Geeky White Noise Solutions

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Last night was the first night of the Caribana and for the most part it was quiet. It was quiet until 23:30 when one of the less competent sound gremlins got to the audio mixing desk and made it tremendously loud. So loud that I could hear the music clearly. If I knew the artist I would tell you who was playing.

Given that noise pollution is encouraged, from music festivals in summer, on a regular basis, despite all the hot air about them caring for the environment I have come up with a splendid solution.

The solution that I favour is to wear the hearing protection I used as a luggage handler when I worked at Geneva airport in Switzerland. This muffles the noise pollution. Due to the ringing in my ears, when an environment is too quiet I also turned on two fans yesterday. A normal “warehouse” fan, and an air purifier, both at high power.

Next, I place airpods in my ears and watched Apocalypse Now from the comfort of my bed.

The idea is simple. I use the fans to generate white noise to cover most of the noise pollution from the festival. I then use the hearing protection to filter out the white noise, to attenuate everything further. The final step is the airpods and a film or TV series. The idea is to mask whatever remaining sound gets through all of these layers.

At this point you might be thinking “But that’s nucking futs, is the festival that loud?” and the answer is “yes”, but only when the gremlin was working as sound engineer, not earlier.If it wasn’t for that sound engineer/gremlin at the festival then the region would be quiet, especially during a heatwave.

Everyone is indoors, in their air conditioned homes, or cavern like houses, enjoying the cool air. They could also be at the lake side enjoying the sunshine, and the lake. If not by the lake then they flee to the cool, comfortable mountains instead, for pleasant hikes.

In essence, summer is here, and the decline in noise pollution is evident, except for the Caribana this week, and the Paléo next month.

The Quantified Festival Sleep Tax

According to Apple, Coros and Garmin I went to sleep around 2am rather than the usual midnight time. According to all three ecosystems I didn’t sleep enough. Having said this, Garmin thinks my battery recharged well.

The real issue is that the music might have been especially loud for two or three songs, but the sleep lag, resulting from it is an hour or two.

I got to sleep at 2am, which is okay if you get up at eight, or later.

Tomorrow I plan to get up at four or five o’clock to do the 6am, before work run. If I can’t get to sleep until two, then I get less than two hours of sleep.

The solution is simple. I have to sleep during the quiet part of the day, especially during this canicule, and recharge before we get to the noisy music festival noise pollution part of the day. I need to shift my circadian cycles to allow me to be rested at 5am, when I drive from Nyon to Morges to run for an hour.

On Age and Music Taste

When you’re young you see a festival and you think “Oh I want to see this group” and “oh I also want to see that group” so you volunteer, to go for free. That’s what I did when I was younger.

According to some, volunteering for a festival, enjoying it, and then complaining about it is ironic, but I don’t think so. In an age where we encourage people to walk, to cycle, to sleep well, and more it seems ironic that we allow an event to use industrial sound equipment, that is as loud as an aircraft on the ground to be seen as entertaining and fun.

This isn’t a folk festival with acoustic levels of music. This is an industrial stack of speakers that is as loud as a jet taking off that is allowed to go from 18:00 or so until 0300.

If an airport did the same people would be furious, and yet the sound level of the concert, and the plane taking off is the same, but one is encouraged, and the other is fined.

Well Rehearsed Auditory Self-Isolation

As a geek who loves technology I have found that the best solution is to have fans as white noise, and hearing protection to attenuate other noises, and finally a film, audio book or other source of sound to help drown out the loud part of the evening when a festival is on. It benefits both my mental health and my mental state.

The festival is invading my personal space, but with airpods, hearing protection and white noise, I can reclaim my solitude. Yesterday while watching Apocalypse Now.

Today my plan is an afternoon siesta and an attempt at poly-phasic sleep.

We’re in a heat wave, and waking at 04:30 to run at 6am makes a lot of sense, to avoid the heat.

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#airpods #deprived #festivals #hearingprotection #music #noise