Cary Cranks Volume

The dial in Cary, N.C., now goes all the way up to about an 8 after town councilors voted to raise permitted noise level limits for shows at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre at Regency Park.

Officials recently voted to increase sound limits from 92 decibels to 95 decibels during concerts, reportedly in efforts to help the city remain competitive with Raleigh’s new 5,000-capacity amphitheatre.

“We have a reputation in Cary for having one of the strictest sound levels in North America,” Mayor Harold Weinbrecht told the Cary News. “We did take a lot of criticism this year … from not only artists but also from people coming to the shows.”

The paper added that several bands including Paramore, Stone Temple Pilots and The Avett Brothers have forgone Cary in recent years to play Raleigh venues.

It appears that the cities have different ways of measuring sound volume, with Cary measuring its new 95-decibel limit 80 feet from the stage and Raleigh measuring its 90-decibel limit 274 feet away from the stage.

The city of Cary also requires that weekday concerts wrap up by 10 p.m. and weekend shows no later than 11 p.m., the paper said.