Bass from Hard Summer musical festival in Inglewood rattles homes miles away

Inglewood officials believe an elevated stage at the Hard Summer music festival outside SoFi Stadium over the weekend likely led to the hours of rumbling bass felt across parts of the South Bay.

Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. contacted Hard Summer’s promoter immediately upon hearing about noise complaints from as far as five miles away in El Segundo and had the event reduce the decibels, he said in an email.

“While that mitigated the problem, the issue of bass transmission into the atmosphere was not totally alleviated,” Butts said.

Related: More about the Hard Summer music festival

The mayor, who lives a quarter of mile north of SoFi, said he did not hear the concert or feel the bass. Most residents in Inglewood were not impacted, he said, though cities to the west — such as El Segundo, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach — could feel the vibrations likely due to the stage’s positioning.

“There have been four outdoor concerts before this one with no such complaints,” Butts said. “The physical difference for this one was that the stage was set on the area between the YouTube Theater and SoFi Stadium. It is opined that at that elevation the bass outputs escaped the confines of the Hollywood Park campus.”

City officials, the event’s promoters and other stakeholders will perform an “autopsy” of the event to determine what went wrong, Butts said.

Hard Summer is a two-day electronic and hip hop music festival. This year’s lineup included Skrillex, Nelly Furtado and Major Lazer.

Los Angeles County previously considered banning Hard Summer and other large rave-like concerts in response to a series of drug-related deaths at the event in 2014 and 2015. The event has rotated around Southern California — largely outside of Los Angeles County — since then. Last year, Hard Summer took place in Exposition Park adjacent to the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, its first time back in the county since 2015.

Residents throughout the South Bay reportedly began hearing thumping from Hollywood Park during sound checks Friday, Aug. 2. The El Segundo Police Department received so many complaints on the festival’s first night that the law enforcement agency posted a notice on the social media platform X asking residents to stop calling 911.

“We are aware of the loud booming sound affecting the city,” the post read. “It is originating from a music festival near SoFi Stadium, scheduled from 2:00 p.m. – 11 p.m. today and tomorrow. There is no need to call 911 to report.”

Others from Ladera Heights, Culver City, Manhattan Beach and elsewhere took to social media to express their frustration. The complaints accused the rumbling bass of causing migraines, rattling doors and windows, and generally disrupting their weekend. The bass began Friday during the initial sound checks and could still be heard Sunday night, according to the posts.

“The bass is beyond obnoxious, I’m 7 miles away,” wrote a user on Reddit.

“I’m in Hawthorne and thought someone in the neighborhood was throwing a party,” another responded.

Hard Summer’s organizers could not be reached for comment. The company told NBC Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 4, that it was aware of the complaints and had made operational changes between the first and second night to “mitigate sound levels.”

“Our team will be reacting in real-time to adjust concerns until the event ends promptly at 10 PM,” the company wrote in a statement. “While the fan experience is paramount to HARD Summer, it is equally important for us to be good members of the community and considerate neighbors to the city of Inglewood.”

Inglewood does have a noise ordinance, however, Hollywood Park, where SoFi Stadium is located, is specifically exempt for any sporting events and up to 12 other events per year. The city’s Municipal Code states that approved events at Hollywood Park “shall be permitted to generate noise levels in excess” of the ordinance as long as the event ends by midnight.

Los Angeles County’s noise restrictions would not apply because the venue is within Inglewood’s jurisdiction, according to a spokesperson for county Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose district includes Inglewood and other affected cities. Mitchell’s office has not received many complaints about SoFi Stadium in the past.

This isn’t the first time that a concert at SoFi Stadium has created a unique phenomenon. In August 2023, Taylor Swift’s visit to the venue registered on seismic charts. Dancing during her performance of “Shake It Off” generated energy equivalent to a 0.85- magnitude earthquake, though over a longer period of time than a typical temblor, according to a study by Caltech.

The dancing even was picked up by sensors at Los Angeles International Airport, the study found.