As Many South Dallas Concerns Remain, Officials Tackle Fair Park Concert Noise

The city of Dallas is taking steps to address concert noise in Fair Park after wide-reaching EDM beats caused disturbances as far as Northwest Highway.

Some Lakewood and East Dallas residents found themselves too close to the stage — even though it was miles away — on the evening of April 10. In parking lots surrounding Dos Equis Pavilion, the Breakaway Music Festival was kicking off a two-night stint in Fair Park with performances by Polish EDM trio Łaszewo and Angrybaby, a DJ months removed from a set at Coachella.

Residents in Lakewood, the M Streets and Casa Linda heard the thuds of the sub-bass. Even as far north as Northwest Highway, a little over five miles from the stage, Nextdoor posts complaining about vibrating walls began to mount. 

Sunny Nunan lives in the Casa Linda neighborhood. She said she hadn’t heard music blast residential neighborhoods as the April festival did in her 13 years living in the neighborhood.

“I thought literally that the neighbors across the alley were having a ranger,” Nunan said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, their teenage son must be having a massive party.”

The Issue

Fair Park hosts many concerts each year at Dos Equis Pavilion, with none in recent memory generating the level of public backlash seen this spring. In an April 17 memo, Dallas Park and Recreation Director John Jenkins attributed at least part of the disturbance to the configuration of the festival’s two stages. 

As opposed to the permanent music venue, which projects sound toward noise barriers like the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park, both temporary festival stages had been roughly positioned facing north in lots 10A and 10B. Without structures to mitigate sound, the surface lots became “a reflective surface,” according to the memo.

But the lots also hosted Breakaway in 2025 under an existing two-year deal signed with OVG, the former Fair Park operator accused of misusing close to $6 million in donor funds. A similar stage configuration was used in 2025, and complaints were fewer. Park department officials have attributed the year-by-year difference to atmospheric conditions — namely, low-hanging cloud cover and high moisture levels.

“It’s kind of ridiculous. “I mean, what I was thinking was, if it’s that loud here, how are these concertgoers not leaving with bleeding eardrums? The decibel level had to be insane,” Nunan said. “So it was definitely frustrating.”

According to its website, the concert was supposed to wind down before 11 p.m. Rudy Karimi, who represents parts of Lakewood on the Park and Recreation Board, said the noise continued well past that time on April 10.

“Folks said, ‘Hey, this is unacceptable. This is an absolute disruption. It’s going beyond midnight.’ And they were right,” Karimi said. “It certainly did go beyond midnight. I don’t know how far after midnight, but it was certainly past the 11 p.m. shutdown that we try to enforce in our parks.”

Complaints decreased on April 11. Following the prior night’s uproar, park department staff worked with event organizers to lower decibel levels, although the stages could not be repositioned, Jenkins’ memo states.

Karimi said that he didn’t “know if they’ll [Breakaway] come back” and said there needs to be more review of event plans beforehand.

“We were kind of in a trial by error, trial by fire. And we learned,” he said. “So all of these lessons learned now have become best practices that will be enforced moving forward.”

Jenkins memo listed several action items to mitigate noise at Fair Park going forward.

What Officials Are Doing

At a meeting of the City Council Parks, Trails and the Environment Committee Monday, park department staff expanded on plans to prevent similar disruptions.

Staff told council members that stages at future concerts will face inward toward Fair Park’s structures and away from residential neighborhoods in the future. The city will begin requiring decibel limits in all new music agreements and sound monitoring will take place at upcoming events in Fair Park. The monitoring will take place at the nearest adjacent property line as mandated by city code, Fair Park General Manager Brett Wulke told the committee.

Some neighborhoods in South Dallas, far closer to the stage than Lakewood, didn’t complain about the noise. Since the nearest property line may not register sound traveling in a particular direction, neighborhood response teams may also be used to assess sound noise in various areas of the city, staff said.

Residents can also now contact the Fair Park Command Center with noise complaints. A second line could be added at the center to help respond to calls, Wulke said.

The city’s code compliance department will also be notified of planned events at Fair Park and will deploy its nighttime entertainment team on-site to ensure accountability, according to the committee presentation.

Staff will brief the committee on upcoming events and how the updated practices are being implemented at a later date.

What About South Dallas?

Adam Bazaldua, who represents South Dallas as a council member, acknowledged the disruption at the committee meeting, but also questioned why his constituents often don’t see swift conclusions to issues in their neighborhoods.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t put it on record that we have this first-world problem, and we rattled a bunch of million-dollar houses’ windows,” Bazaldua said at the meeting. “This seems to be groundbreaking that we have to take care of, but we have random gunfire and nefarious acts throughout the community and things that are plaguing South Dallas, and we can’t seem to get anyone’s attention.”

The council member also added that he had seen video taken across the street from the festival and that he “couldn’t hear anything, literally” on the recording.

Neighborhood resident and Revitalize South Dallas Coalition President Ken Smith also didn’t hear much noise during the concert, but said he was stuck in traffic for over half an hour near the event. Traffic has been an issue in the area, especially during large concerts like Coldplay’s 2022 performance at the Cotton Bowl, when gridlock delayed the opening set by 40 minutes, according to prior reporting by The Dallas Morning News.

Smith said he was “angry” that the noise issue received so much attention when issues like traffic in South Dallas often go overlooked.

“I doubt whether in one week, we would have had a solution,” Smith said. “If it were people from South Dallas saying there’s a whole lot of noise, I don’t think we would have had a solution in a week.”