A man with a megaphone has been protesting against an outdoor music project marking the end of the First World War at the Waterfront in Ipswich.
The Clarion Call, which is part of the town’s SPILL Festival, features the voices of women singing folk revivalist Shirley Collins’ version of Our Captain Cried All Hands and has been played from 488 loudspeakers on the Waterfront as well as a helicopter twice a day.
However, a man has been disrupting performances from a nearby balcony on the waterfront using a megaphone.
“I live here and this is my home therefore I will protest while this noise is going on,” he said.
“I don’t consider this artwork, I consider it an offence.”
The festival’s artist director Robert Pacitti said they had engaged with the council and the police over the issue.
Mark Peck posted to the festival’s Facebook page to voice his concerns.
He said: “Is there anything that can be done about the idiot with the megaphone who’s been doing his best to ruin it the last few days?”
Mr Pacitti replied: “We are trying to have a dialogue with him. We have engaged with the council and the police.
“The best we can hope for is that he respects everyone else’s right to experience Clarion Call without his disruption.
“We are trying to get him to understand the memorial nature of it.”
East Anglian Daily Times reader Mr J Cooper had travelled to Ipswich to hear the Clarion Call at sunset.
In a letter to the newspaper, he said: “It was a composition that I considered so beautiful and was defiantly an uplifting experience that contrasted to the normal atmosphere of a run down Ipswich.
“Sadly it was marred by the behaviour of one man from a nearby balcony who was intent of spoiling the efforts of a talented composer and the one hundred ladies who gave their voices to this extraordinary composition.
“The marina had been turned into a gallery of beautiful spiritual sound and one wonders why this man has been allowed to spoil this brilliant piece of artistic work.
“I consider it to be a hate crime towards humanity and ask why law enforcement has allowed it to happen every night. Shame on Ipswich.”
A spokesman for the festival said the response to the Clarion Call has been ‘overwhelmingly positive’.
She said: “We’re disappointed that one resident on the Waterfront has chosen to interact with the public sonic artwork Clarion Call, which commemorates the centenary of the end of WW1, by using a megaphone during the performance.
“The piece uses the voices of women and girls to convey the experience of war by those left behind, which is not often heard, and provides a moment in time for a community to come together in hope and reflection.”
The SPILL festival concludes on Sunday.
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