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Heath not the best music venue
• I SUPPORT Matthijs Dijkstra’s objection (Letters July 9) to the Sweden on Stage event on Hampstead Heath on July 4 and would refute David Lowe’s response (Letters July 16).
Music plays a very important part in my life and I would not argue with Mr Lowe’s assessment of John Etheridge as a very fine guitarist. The debate, for me, does not centre on the quality of the music, but the degree to which it is amplified, not only on that Saturday, but on most Sunday afternoons throughout the summer and occasional Friday evenings as well.
For me, like Matthijs Dijkstra and many others, the Heath is not a music venue, it is a place of beauty and tranquillity.
I do not agree with David Lowe that the bandstand is for just this type of event. The design is a traditional Victorian one, open on all sides, with unamplified music in mind and not for bands of whatever size amplified to a ridiculous degree so it can be heard by hundreds in their homes and gardens over a large area surrounding this corner of the Heath.
If I want to hear music, I go to a venue specifically designed for the purpose so that it is not inflicted on vast numbers of people who wish to enjoy their Sunday afternoons or evenings in a different way.
Jim Arnold
Croftdown Road, NW5
Cacophony
• I AM totally unable to endorse David Lowe’s plea (July 16) for more free concerts.
One person’s fantastic music is another person’s horrible cacophony. If people like a specific type of music they are fully entitled to enjoy it; what they are not entitled to do, in my very strong opinion, is impose it on others. I recommend instead personal stereos.
Margaret King, NW3
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