Hearing Loss and Protection

[HomicidalGoat]

I'm still continually amazed at the amount of people who forgo hearing protection at Glastonbury and live music in general.

I was in the pit for a handful of loud performances and glancing around I saw fewer than 5% of people wearing earplugs. None of my group wore them either and by the Sunday I was becoming a bit hoarse from raising my voice so they could hear what I was saying. And this was back at camp where things were quiet. 

I myself have lost a good chunk of my upper frequencies from recklessness in my teenage years and early 20s when I would stand right up next to ear-splitting speaker systems for hours on end. I feel like there was a big cultural push in the mid-2010s to remove the 'uncool' stigma about earplugs and that's when I started getting serious about wearing them. I fully expected everyone to eventually get onboard but 2022 has shown this not to be the case.

I also feel the organisers have a duty of care regarding this and I don't see why they can't handout free earplugs at the gate on entry or something. People have told me there are free ones being given around around the site but in both 2019 and 2022 I've been unable to find where this is? 

Additionally, I couldn't believe there were no vendors selling high-quality earplugs anywhere. Surely someone is missing a trick as I'd like to believe there would be enough demand. 

Anyway, rant over.

 

[GoonerRob]

Wore them in Arcadia when close to the speakers all Saturday night, first time I’ve ever worn them and will be taking them again! None of my mates even considered it. 

[Rufus Gwertigan]

They have the foam ones at the info points 

[danssol]

I used vibes ear protectors for the first time because I now need hearing aids. There were very good and didn’t ruin the experience. Hearing loss is pretty due to exposure to extreme loud noise over the years. Look after your ears

[KingoStarr]

I have fairly mild tinnitus in my right ear and have found over the last year or so my hearing has become really sensitive.

I saw a thread on here before about hearing protection and someone mentioned the Loop Experience Pro ear protectors, so I ordered them.

Honestly I think I drove my friends insane the amount I was talking about them over the festival, one of the best investments I have made and I would never attend a gig/festival without them now. 

[moogster]

I have to say the sound of a lot of stages is spot on, loud enough to enjoy but not enough to hear. I only used my ear protections (loops) a couple of times, at John Peel if I remember well. I am not a EDM fan so maybe it was different in the dancy areas.

8 hours ago, KingoStarr said:

I have fairly mild tinnitus in my right ear and have found over the last year or so my hearing has become really sensitive.

I saw a thread on here before about hearing protection and someone mentioned the Loop Experience Pro ear protectors, so I ordered them.

Honestly I think I drove my friends insane the amount I was talking about them over the festival, one of the best investments I have made and I would never attend a gig/festival without them now. 

I know, they are amazing aren't they?  I'm a convert too and have to mention it every time I use them. For example I was amazed on how I could still clearly hear the Just Mustard singer's quite high voice when this would have been impossible with my previous gear.

[prog seller]

I moved to Loop earplugs as the other mushroomy shaped silicone ones make my ears itch.

 

The sound was spot on all festival and I only got them out a few times when close. 

 

Go watch its all gone pete tong and tell me about hearing protection.  Mostly, once its gone you can't get it back. I had issues as a kid, and have no problems wearing decent plugs that don't really effect performances. 

 

[FrankieX]

Yeah, I have mild tinnitus as well, which has made me more cautious about these things although I don't wear ear protection. The only place I felt there was a problem was William's Green, where I stayed near the back of the tent because it seemed overly loud.

[Troop Dogg]

There are lots of ear protection options out there, but I've been using these for all gigs and rehearsals with bands for the last 20 years and still have pretty good hearing in my 40s. They take a bit of getting used to, but work out at about 17p per pair, totally worth it for preserving hearing in the long run. 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/howard-leight-max-37db-foam-ear-plugs-200-pairs/1346h

[garc1a]

Info points and the bars have them. 

[Isaact]

I wear ear peace protectors and can't fault them, they are fantastic.

Seconded on the Williams' Green tent being far, far too loud. The mixing was fucked too. What an absolute howler the sound engineer had there.

[Suprefan]

I think my tinnitus got worse during the festival which is pretty surprising. Things werent as loud as they could be and you could easily find the dead spots at stages where the sound was not good. Had earplugs in the whole time. I mean I was either up front or in the front half of everything I saw barring a handful of things due to arriving late to the stage.

 

The bass at Kendrick Lamar was literally stage shaking and that I think is kind of an issue. I also forgot how low those subs go and its not really the best thing because they push out the bass for the entire field. The repeaters they have have none mixed into it so the sound gets lost a bit farther back on the Pyramid.

[iamsam]

I've suffered with tinnitus since I was around 18 and have relied on plugs ever since. I forgot them one morning which meant a disaster of a long-trek back to the campervan to get them. Seeing the number of people go without is genuinely frightening as there is no turning back the clock. It's perhaps a bit kill-joy, but it would be good to see the festival encourage people to think about it or at the very least sell some decent ones on site.

[Sky_Fly]

10 minutes ago, iamsam said:

I've suffered with tinnitus since I was around 18 and have relied on plugs ever since. I forgot them one morning which meant a disaster of a long-trek back to the campervan to get them. Seeing the number of people go without is genuinely frightening as there is no turning back the clock. It's perhaps a bit kill-joy, but it would be good to see the festival encourage people to think about it or at the very least sell some decent ones on site.

Agreed, really surprised by how few people wear ear plugs. I used to have some custom ones but now just wear decent foam ones. Might look into those loop ones. 
 

I would like to see more encouragement of ear plugs by festivals/clubs 

[Penrhos]

I have tinnitus and have had it for years.

I'm more cautious about sound levels than I used to be but I don't wear ear protection by default but always make sure I have a few pairs of earplugs with me (my good ones and a couple of pairs of cheapo ones). I found I only needed to break them out in some of the tents and even just a few rows back from the outside stages it wasn't that loud.

 

I was surprised how few children had ear defenders on as their hearing is more easily damaged so was disappointed that some parents were so irresponsible - it's an adults educated choice not to wear them but children wouldn't know....

 

The dance venues were by far the worst for ear whistling bass/treble so being Mr uncool out came the plugs once I'd got inside and I'm happy to say I didn't trigger any bad ringing all festival - so I'm happy.

 Needs to be a publicized ear plug/ear defender recommendation and a way to find stands selling them.

[gizmoman]

Another one with tinnitus, nearly 50 years of gig going takes it's toll I now always carry some earplugs, used them a few times during the festival though most stages were o.k. Biggest surprise was the acoustic tent of all places, for years it's had crap sound but this year they had new arena style hanging P.A. was incredibly loud at times, sound bounces off the roof of course. Was at the back of the field for Pet Shop Boys on the Other and the new repeaters have really raised the volume there, had to stick the plugs in then.

[FrancisH]

The speakers at NYC downlow on Friday were absolutely lethal, could barely hear on Saturday morning. Definitely made me realise I should be using earplugs at gigs.

[HyperTechnoHorse]

The messaging on ear protection has been clear now for at least 10 years. Any idiot who doesn't take sensible precautions deserves whatever happens to their hearing. 

[FrancisH]

1 hour ago, HyperTechnoHorse said:

The messaging on ear protection has been clear now for at least 10 years. Any idiot who doesn't take sensible precautions deserves whatever happens to their hearing. 

Obviously not considering very few people wear them. Not sure wishing permanent ear damage on 'idiots' is the way forward though.

[Suprefan]

The kids thing is the most alarming. Most parents dont take it into consideration,  especially the swath of newborns being lugged about by parents who couldnt/wouldnt get a sitter or leave the kid with a family member.
 

IICON and Arcade had the best sound  overall though. Prob cause they spent money on good equipment and had great people on the sound desk.

 

The repeaters slat West Holts sounded 10 times better than the mix up front.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Suprefan

[Avalon_Fields]

I’ve developed tinnitus recently. I had it for a while as a teenager, but now this has caused me much more distress. I’m not sure it was caused by loud music. I wore the excellent but expensive Ultimate Ears at louder parts of the festival, and simple earplugs elsewhere as necessary. 
 

I’d really encourage everyone to look after their ears!

[Watergirl]

I have fairly bad tinnitus and always have earplugs with me. I have custom-made ones, and foam ones for less loud gigs. Sound was not overly loud at any of the gigs I was at this year though. I used the foam mostly; sometimes went without.

[Rcatovga]

I have tinitus and use moulded ear plugs, still came away from the festival with the tinitus noticeably worse. For me I think it was more the lack of break from noise than any particular loud stage (though williams green was noticeably bad). With bars and small stages always playing amplified music it took a fair walk to greenfield to get a break from it.

[blutarsky]

13 hours ago, Penrhos said:

I was surprised how few children had ear defenders on as their hearing is more easily damaged so was disappointed that some parents were so irresponsible - it's an adults educated choice not to wear them but children wouldn't know....

This probably sounds a bit extreme, but I think not putting your kids in ear defenders essentially amounts to neglect. We took Baby B to Beautiful Days last year and she wore Banz ones all the time. There’s aLos a whole other debate on whether or not you agree on taking children to lots of areas of the festival. 
 

Personally I took my Eggz earplugs but was really slack about using them. I reckon I only wore them for 2-3 gigs, which is really poor. My mum had hers in for more or less the entirety of the time she was on site. My Dad, who’s already deaf as a post, wore none 🤦‍♂️ 

[philipsteak]

13 hours ago, Penrhos said:

 

 

I was surprised how few children had ear defenders on as their hearing is more easily damaged so was disappointed that some parents were so irresponsible - it's an adults educated choice not to wear them but children wouldn't know....

 

 

 

This was way worse than I remember seeing before. Previous years and at other festivals it seemed like the message had got through about how important this is but this year there were loads without.