Some Palm Springs neighbors upset with noise from Splash House parties
A group of neighbors of one Splash House venue are upset with the noise coming from the popular music festival event.
For 10 years Splash House has brought in hundreds of thousands of people to its weekend-long festival.
Related Story: City of Palm Springs proclaims “Splash House Day” for 10th year anniversary
The events are held at Saguaro, Margaritaville, and Renaissance Hotels during the day, and when the sun goes down festival go-ers head to the Palm Springs Air Museum where they party until 2:00 a.m.
Residents from the museum's neighboring community of Escena are saying the noise coming from the museum during the festival is an ongoing issue for them every year.
“It’s this bass drumming and thumping that starts to happen around 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. Even if you’ve gone to sleep at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. you wake up and this thumping is just so loud," explained Escena resident Carol Davidson. "You can’t mask it.”
Carol and her partner live across the street from the museum, just a brick wall and a main street away from all the noise.
“It’s very very disturbing not only for me, but for all the people here that live in Escena and hear this," she continued.
The City of Palm Springs and Splash House have a noise complaint hotline. Another Escena resident told News Channel 3 that while there is a noise complaint hotline, he feels the noise issue is never resolved when he places a call or sends a text to the provided phone numbers.
That resident, Rod Villalobos also said he's been trying to push the city and event organizers to find a solution. Villalobos claims that residents have become so fed up with the noise levels, and no resolve that many of them have stopped filing their complaints all together.
“Folks are frustrated and they’ve reached a point of resignation that nothing is going to happen," he said.
According to the City of Palm Springs in June of 2023 when Splash House was first held this summer, the dispatch center fielded 14 calls of service related to noise complaints. Last week dispatch reported getting 19 noise complaints. Splash House's final weekend for this summer is expected to happen from August 18 through August 20.
News Channel 3 reached out to Splash House about the complaints. The Splash House team responded with the following statement:
"We appreciate all the communication from residents we have received during our events. We work closely with residents, the city, and code enforcement to readily respond to any complaint and relay to our production team. This weekend, we are introducing new audio-monitoring technology to provide the information we need to better adjust audio levels on the event stages in real-time.
These new techniques join an already extensive commitment to sound mitigation. We always strive to achieve a balance that enables us to bring world-class artists and add economic value to the city while creating the least amount of sound disturbance to our nearby neighbors. Throughout the weekend, our Community liaison Darren Carroll will be available on-site to interact with residents and collect your input so that we can achieve a positive outcome for the community. He can be reached at 310-200-5839."
Villalobos said he is hopeful the new technology being introduced this weekend finally gives himself and other residents peace of mind.
