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  Vocals Ignore Ordinance
Posted by FoM on July 23, 2001 at 07:07:32 PT
By Joe Rankin, Staff Writer  
Source: Morning Sentinel 

cannabis The Maine Vocals thumbed their collective nose at the town's mass gathering ordinance, going ahead with their mid-summer FreedomFest this past weekend without getting town permits. Rock bands drew some 1,100 fans to Harry Brown's farm on Friday, and about 1,500 Saturday, said Vocals president Don Christen.

Sunday afternoon's performance by the rock band Nazareth was expected to draw a sizable crowd, especially after the Vocals took to the radio to advertise cut-rate tickets at $5 a pop.

"Everybody and their brother can afford that," said Christen, standing near the stage as the band Between the Lines got ready to go on and Nazareth rockers piled out of a van with their equipment.

FreedomFest is one of three multi-day concerts the Vocals schedule each year at Brown's farm off State Route 43. This year was the fourth FreedomFest.

Vocals spokesmen say the FreedomFest theme is more a celebration of basic American freedoms — including the right of assembly, while Hempstock focuses on legalization of marijuana.

Christen said the Vocals have no intention of complying with the town ordinance's permit requirements. He maintains the group is grandfathered because its festivals predate passage of the ordinance.

The law was passed in 1995. Last spring voters tightened it, lowering the threshold for what qualifies as a mass gathering, including camping areas, and setting noise limits.

First Selectman Cathy Cole said Saturday that she received several complaints Friday night about noise from people living up to four miles away.

"There were quite a few complaints to police," she said.

Cole said selectmen will be talking with a lawyer to "see what our next step is going to be." She declined to say whether the town had someone at the festival site counting people and monitoring noise levels.

In addition to tightening the ordinance, voters earlier this year appropriated $8,000 for enforcing it.

Christen said the Vocals have tried to be good citizens, turning down the amplifiers when they get complaints and shutting down the music at 1 a.m.

Sunday afternoon the sun baked down as a scattering of early arrivals lounged on the trampled grass in front of the stage or checked out the fried dough and the tie-dyed T-shirts being hawked by vendors.

At the Vocals tent near the stage concertgoers could buy "legalize marijuana" T-shirts, shorts and fanny packs made out of hemp, and bumper stickers that made a statement, such as "bad cop no donut."

"We've done excellent since we opened up" Saturday afternoon, said Patti Colby, who was minding the store. Colby said attendance had been good, partly due to real summer weather.

Also at the Vocals' tent, concertgoers could check out Vocals literature, such as "War on Drugs: UN Plot," and "Industrial applications of hemp." And they could sign petitions seeking referendums on revamping Maine's medical marijuana law and making industrial hemp production legal.

Brenda Farrar, who was overseeing the petitions, said she expected to collect about 1,000 signatures on the petitions over the three days of the festival. The organizers need about 40,000 to get the issues on a referendum ballot in 2003.

The Vocals' medical-marijuana initiative would allow patients to keep a two-year supply of the leaf on hand, grow up to 99 plants, and sets up marijuana distribution centers for patients who didn't want to grow their own.

Vocals spokesmen said this year's FreedomFest was largely problem free.

"It's definitely been a great event," said Farrar. "We had one incident where one kid got beaten up pretty bad ... on Friday. But nothing else," she said.

Both Maine State Police and the Somerset County Sheriff's Department beefed up patrols in the area.

Somserset Sheriff's Sgt. Pierre Boucher said his department arrested six people for operating under the influence Friday and Saturday.

There was no problem with illegal parking along the highway, but the sheriff's department logged a slew of calls about noise from Starks residents who wanted their complaints on the record, Boucher said.

"And the noise was quite loud, I'll tell you," he said.

Note: FreedomFest goes on in Starks without gathering permit.

Source: Morning Sentinel (ME)
Author: Joe Rankin, Staff Writer
Published: July 23, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Morning Sentinel
Contact: dcheever@centralmaine.com
Website: http://www.onlinesentinel.com/

Related Articles & Web Site:

Maine Vocals
http://www.mainevocals.org/

Vocals Plan Fete Despite Starks Ordinance
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10341.shtml

Pownal: State Not Helping Stop Fest
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10072.shtml


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Comment #2 posted by Bounce to the Ounce on July 23, 2001 at 15:34:37 PT
noise
dont forget those little yapper dogs that bark like crazy in the dead hours of the night, waking up everyone on the block. Damn, I hate those things.

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Comment #1 posted by sm247 on July 23, 2001 at 14:04:37 PT
SO WHAT !!!
Ya people complain when it isn't "their kinda music" but do they care when they fire up their lawnmower at 10 am waking neighbors who work 3rd shift. Those people should mind their own business. Maybe the promoters could provide EARPLUGS next year for those who complained.

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