Organizers of Symmetry Music & Arts Festival promise changes to address noise concerns

FAIRFIELD – The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors discussed a proposed event permit and noise ordinance at its meeting Monday, Dec. 22, which focused on a large music festival that has taken place in the southwest corner of the county.

Symmetry Music & Arts Festival is only two years old, but it’s quickly become one of the main events for aficionados of electronic music. According to Donald Revolisnki and Ti Liptak, two members of Symmetry’s executive team who met with the supervisors Monday, the festival is the premiere concert for “wave” music in all of North America.

The festival’s first year in 2024 attracted about 65 musical acts, and this past October it welcomed 102 acts. Ticket sales nearly tripled in 2025 when 1,200 paying customers gathered for two full days of music on an acreage about 3 miles south of Libertyville at 2751 Eastwood Ave.

The festival is held in a remote part of the county, but the music can be heard by neighboring homeowners. During Monday’s supervisor meeting, homeowner Tim Nelson addressed the board about his concerns regarding the concert’s loud noise running late into the night, preventing his family and others from sleeping.

Revolinski and Liptak spoke about plans to alter next year’s concert so the noise won’t bother neighboring homeowners. However, at the end of the nearly 50-minute discussion, Nelson and the two Symmetry representatives did not see eye-to-eye on the appropriate closing time for the musical acts, with Nelson pushing for the main stage to close at midnight and the Symmetry team pushing for it to end at 1:30 a.m. In October, due to strong winds delaying one day of the concert, some musical acts played as late as 3:30 a.m.

Organizers propose changes

Revolinski and Liptak told the supervisors they were amenable to making changes to their festival, but also stressed that they needed a certain amount of freedom for the event to be successful. They worried that an overly restrictive event permit would make holding their festival impossible, since it is competing with other musical festivals held at night, and because its nighttime light show is one of the main attractions.

Assistant Jefferson County Attorney Ed Kelly shared with the board a draft of a potential noise ordinance. The proposal would put limitations on decibel levels during the day, and stricter rules on decibel levels at night, from 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Kelly said the draft was just an example of an ordinance the supervisors could pass, and that he wasn’t necessarily in favor of all the provisions.

Liptak said the proposed ordinance, calling for a limit of 60 decibels after 10:30 p.m., “would affectively shut us down.” He said other counties that have passed a noise ordinance have it take effect around 3-4 a.m.

Liptak said that shutting down the Symmetry festival would be a bad idea because of its hugely positive economic impact. In a report Liptak shared with The Union, the 2025 festival sold out local hotels, filled Airbnbs, and produced an estimated $1.2 million in local economic output. He also said the event only lasts a few nights a year, and it’s known well in advance. Next year’s event will be Oct. 2-3, 2026.

Nelson said he wanted the organizers to understand that, even if their festival is a few nights, “you’re coming into our homes.” Nelson said he was also insulted by the organizers’ offer to pay for a hotel room for his family, since he didn’t feel he should be expected to leave his own house.

Revolinski said the executive team will implement a few changes to the grounds before the next festival, such as reorienting the main stage so it’s not pointed at Nelson’s house, and adding shipping containers to absorb the sound. Nelson expressed skepticism that these changes would fix the problem.

Testing out the changes

Revolinski said that, this coming summer, they will test their sound equipment at the festival grounds and measure the decibel levels at Nelson’s driveway to see if these modifications they’re planning did in fact reduce the sound reaching his house. The supervisors took no action on the proposed event permit and noise ordinance, and agreed they would wait to see how the organizers’ proposed changes affected the sound.

After the meeting, Liptak and Revolinski told The Union they hope to grow the festival even more in 2026 with a goal of 2,000 tickets sold. Liptak said that even with almost tripling ticket sales in 2025, the event did not turn a profit, but organizers are hoping to at least break even in 2026. They said their goal is to turn this into a festival that lasts for years to come.

“We’ve known several people who have moved to Fairfield because of the festival,” Revolinski said. “There’s an excellent cultural fit between the people who live here and the people who we bring in, and that’s why some folks are like, ‘This is the kind of vibe I want to live in.’”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com