Sharonstock Shut Down

The annual family get-together known as Sharonstock received its annual visit from York Regional Police but this time they used some muscle on the party.  

Sharonstock III, so named because it’s held at the home of the brother and sister-in-law who live in Sharon, Ont., was rockin’ and rollin’ to the Dust Monkeys on Saturday. The Dust Monkeys are a bunch of guys who get together and jam in a dusty room in the Toyota plant.  Once a year they play live at this gathering and it’s good fun with their families and friends all in attendance.  They specialize in classic rock and they had 3 sets all planned with a few local solo artists performing in between. We have to admit – it was loud.  All of the neighbours had been told of the party and invited to attend. But when a couple of York Region’s finest showed up to say there had been “multiple noise complaints” it became clear that the sound was traveling beyond the immediate block.

two uniformed police officers talking to two men wearing T-shirts and shorts

The police had a bit of a good cop/bad cop routine going but they were firm: if they had to come back because of more complaints, they were shutting us down.

Everyone complied, so we thought! During the second set the same two officers returned and said the live music had to end. One officer claimed he could hear the band clearly a couple of blocks away. My brother-in-law, his wife and his son protested gently but it was a done deal.  The Dust Monkeys could perform two more songs but that was it.  Their last song may have been louder than ever, just to make a point!

The local party-goers didn’t have many good things to say about York officers.  These opinions were all based on first-person accounts of interactions with them, too, not rumours or anything vague. I hope it’s not true that an entire police force is so heavy-handed.  I tend to be pro-police until proven otherwise, say, with the evidence one can’t ignore about LA cops and their legendary corruption.  But I digress.

There were a lot of murmurs about “stick in the mud” neighbours and that sort of thing and it is unfortunate that it turned out this way but the party wasn’t ruined by a long stretch. Another brother played acoustic guitar and sang. We played music softly via an iPod.  The band members were disappointed but we all just carried on and had fun.

Years ago when I lived in a house that backed onto a school yard, a great racket started up on the Friday night of a long weekend. People were pitching tents up against my fence, someone was shouting with a bullhorn and when that wasn’t happening, dance music was blasted at a sound level normally reserved for train whistles. I endured the evening and then it started up again at 8 the following morning.  So I called the police.  It turned out to be a group of young Christians from the US having a weekend revival behind my cedars. It rendered our yard and half of our house uninhabitable and I wanted something done. “Do they have a permit?” I asked.  The officer responded in the negative.  “I can send them on their way” he said, and I agreed.  They had no right to be there and didn’t have permission. It wasn’t my fault that they came all that way only to choose a spot at random that backed onto the yards of private homes.  The cops were also happy to tell them to move along.

So I understand what it’s like to have your peace disrupted. I even get annoyed when the guy a few doors away washes his car with his vehicle’s stereo blaring even though it lasts all of 20 minutes. I get it. So for Sharonstock IV they’ll apply for a permit and if it’s denied, we may have to move to a community centre or other location.  It’s not ideal; brother Rob’s pool is beautiful and we’re all comfortable in their large, private back yard.  But if the show is to go on, we probably should play by the rules so those sticks-in-the-mud can have their peaceful Saturday and we can have our Dust Monkeys turned up to 11.