Noise Management Plan – What is it? When do I need it? And what are noise control strategies?

A noise management plan is not your every-day, standard plan. Most event planners will probably never need one, especially if you are running indoor events.

Yet, when it comes to outdoor events, a Noise Management Plan (NMP) could be the make or break in getting Council approval to host your event. After all, Council’s need to ensure your event brings economic benefit to the local area and, at the same time, does not present a nuisance for surrounding residents.

So, what is a Noise Management Plan? What should it include? And what are noise control strategies? Read on to find out everything you need to know!

What is a Noise Management Plan?

As the name says, this plan outlines how you are planning to manage and control noise pollution at your event.

Generally, when you think of noise at events you think of music and other stage activities. No doubt these are the biggest contributors to noise pollution at event sites. But, what about the noise generated during bump-in and bump-out? This is often overlooked but certainly not any less important, especially considering bump-in/out of events can take multiple days.

When do you need a Noise Management Plan?

Mainly, it is Councils and/or other Government bodies who like to see a stand-alone noise management plan when you are hosting an event in a public (outdoor) space. When you submit an event application to Council you will receive a list of documentation you will need to provide before they will grant you approval to use the public space. Depending on the expected number of attendees, location, season, and time of your event, these documents usually include some, or all, of the below:

• Event Management Plan
• Risk Management Plan
• Noise Management Plan
• Emergency Management Plan

20 years ago no-one had probably even heard of a Noise Management Plan, or any of the other plans to be fair. However, safety requirements are getting tighter every year in the events industry. Therefore, Councils are asking for more and more documentation to ensure event managers cover all the necessary hazards and risks.

Noise Management for Events vs Noise Management for Venues

You may have noticed that we sell two NMP templates on our website. One for events and one for venues. What is the difference, you might wonder? Let me explain.

A Noise Management Plan for an event covers all the noise generating practices at that particular event. Small scale outdoor events, or events which produce minimal decibels, generally do not need a stand-alone NMP. A simple section in your Risk Treatment Plan (as part of your Risk Management Plan) dedicated to noise pollution could potentially be sufficient.

On the other hand, larger scale events, and in particular music events, will most likely need a dedicated NMP. As such, you will need to document what types of noise will be created and at what times, the decibels of the applicable works, your noise control strategies and how you will monitor/measure the noise pollution during the event.

A Noise Management Plan for a venue is more complex as it needs to cover a variety of different event types which could be held at that venue. In addition, it will also cover any other activities which could cause a noise hazard for nearby residents. These noises are not necessarily event related i.e. loading dock operations.

Every event venue will need to submit a Noise Management Plan as part of their Development Application (DA). Basically, without a Noise Management Plan developers will not be able to build their venue. Therefore, it is important to provide a quality document which covers every aspect of your venue operations.

What are noise control strategies? And what are the main types of controls for noise?

When you are asked to provide noise control strategies you basically need to explain HOW you are going to control the noise. Generally, it’s easiest to create a table to list your controls per event activity i.e. bump-in/out (also known as set up/pack down), stage activities or perhaps start-line activities.

For each of the activities relevant to your event it is important to list WHAT the control measure is, WHEN the control will happen, HOW the measure will be implemented and WHO is responsible for implementing the measure.

Let’s do an example below for an outdoor stage show.
WHAT – No amplified audio to occur after 10pm
WHEN – Prior to event
HOW – Stage schedule designed accordingly. Show to conclude at 10pm.
WHO – Event Manager (prior to event) and Stage Manager (during event).

Every event will obviously have different types of controls for noise. However, below I will list a few which are common across outdoor events.

• Notifying residents and stakeholders of the event (prior to event)
• Reducing noise emission on plant and equipment (bump in)
• Reducing speaker noise to neighbouring residence (bump-in)
• No amplified audio after (during event)
• Decibel monitoring (during event)

Noise Management for Events – Summary

A Noise Management Plan is a document which describes measures and controls to manage the noise output of your event. Mostly, it will be Councils or other Government organisations who ask to see a NMP for a proposed event. Your noise control strategies form the basis of your document as this pin points exactly what you are going to do to control the noise emissions onsite.

At first, creating a NMP can be a bit daunting. The trick is to just start writing and really think about how you do things on your event site or event venue. You are probably already controlling your noise emissions in the day-to-day activities. It’s just a matter of putting it all on paper.