An emergency meeting has saved New Westminster’s popular weekly swing dances from neighbourhood noise complaints – for now.
Royal City Swing – a group that attracts more than 100 people to the Sapperton Old Age Pensioners Hall for dances every Friday – got a notice last Wednesday from the owners of the hall, the Sapperton Old Age Pensioners Association.
Because of noise complaints from neighbours, the association said all renters would have to vacate the venue and parking lot by 10:30 p.m. instead of midnight, effective July 27.
Royal City Swing organizers told the Record last week the change would sink the dances.
“We would have to close,” said co-founder Kyle MacDonald. “People pay $10 to dance. They’re regular working people. They can’t show up at five o’clock; 7:30 is pushing it for a lot of people. A lot of people can’t even show up until 9. They’re not going to pay $10 for one hour of dancing.”
After a barrage of emails from distraught swing dancers, however, the pensioners association backed off its original hardline stance late last week.
“I think we’ve realized how what we do at the hall affects them,” said association director Bev Bentham. “We’ve appreciated their comments, but we’ve also told them that we’re getting pressure from the city and we have to make sure that the noise is controlled after 10.”
The association met with MacDonald and his Royal City Swing co-founder Afonso Silveira Friday afternoon, and the dance that night ran to 11:45 p.m. as usual but with a few changes.
“It worked out OK,” MacDonald said Monday. “The dancers were very accommodating to the changes.”
The event attracted more than 100 people, a larger than usual crowd for a holiday week, according to MacDonald. The front doors were closed at 10 p.m. and people coming in and out were required to use the back door opening onto an alley. Volunteers at the front door ensured people didn’t go out that way, and volunteers at the back encouraged dancers stepping out for a breath of fresh air to walk down to Columbia Street to chat.
The pensioners association allowed dance organizers to open some sealed windows to make up for the lost airflow when the front door was closed, but that didn’t exactly keep the un-air-conditioned building cool, according to MacDonald.
“The dance was impacted, definitely,” he said. “It was a good five degrees warmer without the airflow.”
The pensioners association has considered air conditioning for the hall, according to Bentham, but funding has been an obstacle.
“We haven’t got to that point yet because we need to apply for grants to have the work done at the hall,” she said.
Aside from the stuffiness of the hall, however, MacDonald was satisfied with the outcome of the emergency meeting Friday.
“We’re very happy the pensioners are now working with us and treating us like valued renters,” he said.
Bentham expressed similar sentiments.
“Everything appears to be resolved for the time being,” she said.
