Singing loud for Jesus

When Quiet Riot sang Cum On Feel the Noize they weren't sparing a thought for residents of Mystery Creek, Hamilton.

This weekend the annual Christian music extravaganza, the Parachute Festival, is on there, running from tonight until 2pm on Monday. Organisers expect more than 23,000 people to attend.

While the fans are looking forward to it, residents such as John Whitehead are putting their ear plugs in. He says he stands on his floor and can feel the noise through his legs.

"It's the bass," he says. "Look, we don't hold anything against the Parachute Music Festival. We have an issue with the noise. If they ran Parachute according to the council's district plan, like everything else held at Mystery Creek then we wouldn't have an issue."

But Parachute director Mark de Jong says the festival does comply with noise levels controls. "We've worked hard to get this right. Last year we worked hard and stuck within [the noise limits of] our resource consent."

Last year was the first time Parachute had been held at Mystery Creek and residents weren't happy.

So, after the festival de Jong met concerned residents and came up with two major changes for this year's event. There will be no helicopter rides and the fairground show rides will shut down at 9pm, as opposed to midnight. There will also be a 12.30am curfew on the site, which can house more than 15,000 campers. But Whitehead says the changes are just gestures. "All they're saying is, 'Look we've done something to keep the locals happy'."

He says though the residents won't be protesting this weekend they will be taking noise measurements and video recording the behaviour of concert-goers, which isn't as exemplary as organisers claim.

The festival boasts some top local and international Christian acts, including Brooke Fraser, Nathan King (from Zed), Ben Lummis, the Parachute Band, Third Day and Audio Adrenaline.

On Sunday a live performance by a band made up of New Zealand Christian artists will be recorded by producer Malcolm Welsford. The recording is for American Integrity Music - the largest Christian record company in the world - which will distribute it worldwide.

Performance

*What: Parachute Festival 05

*Where: Mystery Creek, Hamilton

*When: Today until 2pm Monday

*Headliners: Third Day, Audio Adrenaline, the Parachute Band, Brooke Fraser, Ben Lummis, Nathan King, Lads, Day of Fire, Shawn McDonald, Magnify and many more.