A quartet was working on their last two songs just before 4pm, when the heavy metal song suddenly appeared ace speed By Motörhead a deafening rumble throughout the park. A neighbor of a classical music festival was found to have put his stereo in front of his window and turned the volume up to ten. The result was that the concert of the quartet could no longer be heard, and both the audience and the performers could do nothing but listen to the DJ set of their neighbors.

“We were really provoked during rehearsal for the first group earlier in the day by playing loud music,” says organizers Annelies De Graeve, Goeleke De Wit and Tim Haerinck. “He called us later himself and asked him to stop our concerts, and not to do any more repeat numbers. When we finished performing, the neighbor started his own music program.”

a standing ovation

The first heavy metal exploded from its box, followed by deafening classic songs. “Our audience and artists benefited from this during the mandatory break,” the organizers said. The string band played one of the neighbor’s classic songs, and the audience gave them a standing ovation. Their applause overshadowed the neighbour’s music. I was touched by the way everyone handled this unexpected situation.”

The police were called to the scene immediately after the neighbours’ DJ set started. Half an hour later they were finally able to calm the neighbor down and stop the music. It turns out that the man, who ran a café nearby, had deliberately raised his stereo due to his dissatisfaction with the “disturbing noise” at the festival. The police had already knocked on his door earlier that day. He was arrested. Then peace returned, and the string quartet was able to finish its last songs undisturbed.