Earplugs at bedtime: Port Charlotte residents fed up with concert noise

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (WINK)—The phrase "pump up the volume" makes some people in one Port Charlotte community cringe.

George Kyriax and his wife Debbie brought their concerns to WINK Listens. Their community butts up to the Charlotte Fairgrounds.

While they acknowledge the fairgrounds have been around longer than them, they're desperate to lower the volume.

A video taken from inside a home on Bonito Way in Port Charlotte, about a half mile from the Charlotte County Fairgrounds, captured the noise during the Southern Grand Slam Music Festival in April.

"When the bass is very loud at night, there's a pipe that rattles right here in this wall," Debbie Kyriax said.

"If you're enjoying the music, that's great. Go outside and enjoy the music, but you should be able to come into your own home, watch TV, go to bed," Debbie Kyriax said.

George and Debbie Kyriax bought their home three years ago. They live across the street from Rose and Ed Unitas, and all agree the noise is a problem.

"We would like some recourse, so we don't have to live like this," George Kyriax said.

"It's terrible. Unbearable," Ed Unitas said.

"When we bought in the community, the realtor said it's a nice, quiet community," Ed Unitas said. "The first week or two or month we were in here, all hell broke loose."

The Unitas' had hurricane doors and windows installed in the hopes it would help.

"It does nothing. That's how loud this music is," Rose Unitas said.

Now on concert nights, earplugs are part of the routine.

"We're at our wits end. We thought WINK News would help. We know they listen to people," Rose Unitas said.

When WINK News reached out to the fairgrounds with the couples' concerns, event promoter Brian Turner responded instead. Turner noted that Charlotte County doesn't have a noise ordinance and said he does make concessions—opening acts perform at a lower volume and the headliner wraps by midnight.

"We understand there's a fairground," Rose Unitas said.

But that's little consolation to the couples when the bass bounces off their walls. WINK News reached out to Charlotte County Commissioner Stephen R. Deutsch, who said he's trying to negotiate with all involved.

Some possible options include moving concerts across the street to the parking lot of the Charlotte Sports Park, planting bamboo-type trees between the fairgrounds and homes to help deaden sound, and the talks continue.

"If the fairgrounds was approved for concerts, say 40 or 50 years ago, this noise level and this bass level, there's no way this was even in existence," Debbie Kyriax said.

"It's like the old James Bond thing—if you like your cocktails shaken and not stirred, come on over because they're going to be shaking all over the place," George Kyriax said.