# Loud outdoor music - how late is too late? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 4, 2010, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495 "2010-07-04T06:53:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495/21 "2010-07-05T00:51:34Z")
It’s cool. I don’t think you are personally lame and you didn’t do anything unreasonable- especially with those details. I’d get cranky, too, about a bunch of noise for no reason. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495/22 "2010-07-05T06:12:31Z")
If I were working nights and there was loud music during the day, I’d certainly complain. ---
**Author:** ![Q.N.Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3da27b/32.png) [@Q.N.Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.N.Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495/23 "2010-07-05T20:03:09Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I like that someone out there is actually having a celebration, rather than the sterile marketed blandness that so much of our culture has dissolved into. I’m all about cultures and neighborhoods having shared rituals and rites of passage, even if that now and then some people are mildly annoyed for a few hours. I feel like our culture has really lost something in modern times, and in fact we’ve become so fussy that we may never get it back. > > Before you all jump on me- hey, this is why I’m hoping not to live my entire life in America! Take me to Africa, where the call to prayer wakes me up at five and the drums keep me up past midnight! What I think is different (and annoying) is that the celebrations you describe are shared by the neighborhood in general. The parties and noises people are complaining about here are at the expense of the neighbors’ quiet enjoyment of their own homes. They’re not invited to join in the revelry. Decent people invite all their neighbors to join in to a noisy and/or outdoor party. This serves two purposes: one, they can have some fun themselves, and two, if they prefer not to, they have some notice and can plan around the inconvenience. Consideration has to go both ways to make a decent community. Community is NOT about letting rude and inconsiderate people run roughshod over your rights and feelings. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495/24 "2010-07-05T21:10:24Z")
Interesting question. My gut feel would be 11:00 pm should be the cut-off time on Fri and Sat nights and 9:00 pm other nights. However, in a real-world sense, if I’m sitting in my backyard at 2:00 pm trying to listen to my music at a low volume but can’t, because of the neighbour five doors down (I’m in a townhouse strip), the time of day suddenly becomes irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495/25 "2010-07-06T03:14:20Z")
Culture is improved by neighborly consideration, which is in no way synonymous with “sterile marketed blandness” In fact, a lot of marketing is centered around promotion of loud parties (notably with sales of booze). ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495/26 "2010-07-06T03:38:04Z")
I also say 10pm is the cutoff except for special days. Like on the 4th of July, we had music and noise till about 12:30am, which I can understand. Or when the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, we had noise till around midnight. OK those are special times. Also we had a neighbor that has a party about twice in the summer and it’ll go on till midnight or 1am. But it’s always on a Saturday and it’s only once or twice a year ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495/27 "2010-07-06T03:49:11Z")
> [@Q.N.Jones](#): > > What I think is different (and annoying) is that the celebrations you describe are shared by the neighborhood in general. The parties and noises people are complaining about here are at the expense of the neighbors’ quiet enjoyment of their own homes. They’re not invited to join in the revelry. > > Decent people invite all their neighbors to join in to a noisy and/or outdoor party. This serves two purposes: one, they can have some fun themselves, and two, if they prefer not to, they have some notice and can plan around the inconvenience. > > Consideration has to go both ways to make a decent community. Community is NOT about letting rude and inconsiderate people run roughshod over your rights and feelings. This. 100%. Generally I’m fairly tolerant during the day, but my idea of a perfect Saturday is dozing in the hammock for a couple of hours so I completely understand those who make the complaints. In a residential neighborhood when you didn’t invite the neighbors midnight would be the latest I would wait. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loud-outdoor-music-how-late-is-too-late/545495.md?page=1)