GuilFest 2026
It was great to return to GuilFest for our third year, with many of our team enjoying the day together and proudly sponsoring The Acoustic Lounge stage! 🎸
With residential properties located close to the festival boundary, effective noise management is essential to GuilFest’s continued operation. Our monitoring helps ensure that sound levels remain within the agreed operational limits, allowing the festival to operate successfully while protecting the amenity of nearby receptors. 🏡
Ahead of the event, we conducted baseline environmental noise surveys at representative residential receptors to establish the existing ambient sound pressure levels. From this, we derived specific LAeq,15mins noise limits and corresponding target levels at key “control” monitoring locations across the festival grounds. Throughout the event, our team monitors noise levels at the main control desk and at these locations using a combination of automated and manned measurements, enabling proactive noise management. 🎛️
To achieve compliance with the agreed 65 dB LAeq,15mins limit at the nearest residential receptors, our assessment determined that the noise levels at the main stage mixing desk should generally remain within the range of 90-95 dB LAeq,15mins, subject to prevailing wind and weather conditions. ☁️
During the event, our monitoring confirmed that keeping within an upper limit of 95 dB LAeq,15mins at the mixing position saw compliant noise levels at our on-site control locations and at neighbouring dwellings.
The perfect result balancing the enjoyment of festival-goers whilst miminising community noise impacts and ensuring full compliance with the council’s agreed limits. ☯️
Post-event analysis showed that sound from the main stage experienced approximately 23 dB of propagation loss to the eastern site boundary, followed by a further 7 dB reduction between the boundary and one of the nearest residential receptors.
A huge thank you to the GuilFest team for another enjoyable event. We’re already looking forward to supporting the festival again next year. ✨
If you’re operating a festival, concert or outdoor event and require specialist noise monitoring, we’d be happy to assist with your needs. Get in touch at hello@quantumacoustics.co.uk to discuss your project.
