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Community events can bring people together, but they can also create headaches for the people who live nearby.

This homeowner found that out after a local church held a large music festival just a couple of blocks away.

Even though plenty of people seemed to enjoy the event, the loud music carried through the neighborhood for hours.

Now, it’s another year, and the homeowner noticed signs announcing the festival’s return and decided to check whether the organizers had secured the proper permits.

That’s when she discovered something that could shut the entire event down before it even started.

Now the homeowner has to decide whether to report it or let the festival go on as planned.

Keep reading to see what you think.

Should I try to cancel a music festival?

Last year, the church a couple blocks over had a seemingly random free music festival. We live in an urban residential area with a weirdly large number of churches within a block or two. They had professional equipment, food trucks, the whole nine yards. There was quite the attendance!

At the time, I found it deeply annoying. I could hear the bass and the music all throughout our house on an unexpected Saturday. Our neighborhood isn’t the best, and the general neighborhood shenanigans really get on my nerves.

We knew people who went from our farther-away church, and they seemed to have a good time (granted, they don’t live a block over). They ended at 8 p.m. on the dot. There were some annoyed posts in the neighborhood Facebook groups, but not a lot.

She’s really not sure what to do.

Fast forward to this year, and I’ve started to see signs for the same music festival. Out of curiosity, I emailed the county about the permits for the festival. After all, there’s no way you can make that much noise without permission. No permits of any kind have been filed.

I’m now stuck with a dilemma.

If I email the organizers and ask about their permits, the festival will almost certainly be canceled at the last minute. I would feel bad about destroying an afternoon for the community. On the other hand, it’s annoying that my peace is getting disrupted for an afternoon. The church has never talked to the local neighbors about this event.

What should I do?

Eek! That is a tough one.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit suggest she do.

This person nailed it.

Yeah, no one should be THAT person.

Perhaps.

According to this person, she should plan for it.

Just, wow! She should stop being such a party pooper and let people enjoy themselves.

The festival only comes around once a year and it wraps up at a reasonable hour, so it’s not like the neighborhood has to deal with it all weekend long.

If the noise bothers her that much, she could always make plans to be somewhere else while it’s going on. Or if she’d rather stay home, she can always turn up the TV or wear earplugs.

Either way, trying to ruin everyone else’s fun is not the answer.