Managing event noise

This guidance is part of our toolkit for running large-scale events.

It’s important to think about the noise your event will generate, and how it could impact on attendees, organisers and neighbours. 

Here are some things to consider:

• It’s a good idea to be considerate to neighbours. Involve them in the early stages of planning and make sure noise levels are kept to a minimum.
• Regular events involving noise that impacts neighbours could be deemed a nuisance. A one-off event is unlikely to be deemed in law to be a noise nuisance. However, if it goes on for several hours/days and causes issues to neighbours, it could harm Girlguiding’s reputation. And it might be difficult to get permission to run a similar event again.
• There are regulations on gov.uk covering noise between 11pm and 7am (link opens in new tab), even if it’s not a nuisance.
• Large venues will already have controls in place to manage noise both internally and in terms of nuisance.
• If you’re on a greenfield site you need to consider all aspects of your event. For example, individual pieces of equipment like generators can cause noise. You should also think about your various activities – from load-in to load-out, through build and the event itself.
• Remember that noise during the day when there’s other background noise doesn’t carry as far or seem as bad as at night. You may have issues with participants trying to sleep if they’re next to a particularly noisy piece of equipment. 

The Health and Safety Executive has comprehensive guidance on noise at events (link opens in new tab), including how to avoid noise damaging the hearing of event participants and organisers.