Opera House Cops $15K Fine After Neighbours Say Florence Was Too Dang Loud

Thanks to residents’ opposition to a string of live gigs in 2015, the Opera House has been fined a cool $15,000 for breaching the decibel limit prescribed by a development approval.

Oh, for the record, the concert was a Florence & The Machine gig. The fine was handed down after it was ruled the third of F&TM’s four forecourt shows exceeded the noise guidelines.

You gotta make sure the harp ain’t too harsh, man.

A post shared by Wows Sangkola Magno (@wowsangkolamagno) on Nov 13, 2015 at 3:02am PST

This marks the first real victory that residents of the prestigious digs have had over their iconic neighbour, after a fair few years of concerted attempts to quell the damned racket.

Notably, Toaster inhabitor Alan Jones stumped up some opposition to last year’s (thoroughly life-affirming) Crowded House gig, only to be called out personally by frontman Neil Finn. 

Those complaints came after NSW Planning and Environment gave the thumbs-up to a provisional change to the development approval, granting a bump in the decibel threshold. 

Residents have indicated they’re opposing that allowance, too. Watch this space to see if any other large-scale events get canned due to noise concerns.

The Opera House says “the right balance was not achieved” at the F&TM gig, but if they can learn anything from the British gun, it’d be to shake this one the hell out.