Q. I live two miles from the Big House and on Friday night the sound from the [Morgan Wallen] concert was very clear and vivid. The next night, Saturday, I could hardly hear the concert from my home. Were they asked to turn the sound level down?
A. Both performances were indeed loud—Nextdoor was filled with reports of discernable song lyrics miles from the stadium—but the AAPD received just two complaints about concert noise on Friday, and none on Saturday. Still, the Observer was unable to verify a reduction in performance volume on the second night.
U-M Public Health noise expert Rick Neitzel suspects that the perceived difference was due to weather conditions. “Noise levels from large sources like roadways and stadiums can vary with weather conditions, including wind and humidity,” he writes in an email. “It looks like the wind was blowing from the SW the night of July 25th and from the SE on the night of the 26th. It also looks like the temperatures were a bit higher the night of July 25th.”