The Stichting Natuurbeschermingswacht Meppel en surroundings has gone to court to challenge the permit for Rammstein’s concerts on Thursday and Friday in the Groninger Stadspark. According to secretary Geert Starre, the noise pollution of the concert is too high.
Normally, a concert should not produce more than 100 decibels of sound. The Municipal Executive of Groningen has extended that limit to 103 especially for Rammstein. “In practice, that 103 is much higher,” explains Geert Starre. “That is closer to 113 decibels. That is guaranteed to cause hearing damage, even with earplugs in. In addition, the birds are blown out of the trees.”
Some 52 species of birds are said to live around the Stadspark, many of which are still breeding, says Starre. According to Starre, there are four things at play: “A mayor (Schuiling, ed.) who grants permission for an event, an alderman (Molema, ed.) who raises the noise standards, the province that grants a permit for fireworks and the same province that requests to maintain the standards for the concert. Something is not right here.”
Starre does not yet know when the case will be heard by the administrative court. “That’s before the concert anyway. It can happen at any time, so to speak, we can be notified an hour in advance that the case is due. We don’t go to court for the nonsense. We think a very strong case This takes days of preparatory work.”
It is very difficult for the Secretary of the Nature Conservancy to predict how it will turn out. The extreme is that the two concerts of the German metal band Rammstein are cancelled. “There are so many snags, it could well be that our case will be rejected on a formality. But I think it will turn out that the concerts will take place in a different form. In other words: with less noise …”
Because that’s what Starre is most concerned about: what the consequences of the concert are. “For the birds of course, but also for the people who go there. It is guaranteed to cause hearing damage. If you think about your own interests, you don’t want to go there at all…”