The day was peaceful and easy, perfect for lounging in the sunny park and soaking up the sweet springtime vibes with a few friends on the grass.

That’s what Adam Owen was up to in Trinity Bellwoods on Monday. Small groups of people on blankets chatted and laughed, while the odd acoustic guitar was strummed gently in the warm air, recalled Owen, a 28-year-old theatre company marketing manager.

That atmosphere didn’t last long. The relative quiet was suddenly pierced by the crackle of an electric guitar plugging in, and a three-piece rockabilly band — fully amped up with a mic, guitar and keyboard — started blasting covers of Johnny Cash and Elvis songs, Owen said. When he confronted them for being too loud, Owen said they told him they’d keep playing for an hour.

“They were a little confrontational,” Owen claimed. “They seemed genuinely convinced that they were doing park-goers a favour by playing their music.”

Though he wouldn’t say it ruined his day in the park, the episode got Owen thinking. By what right do people take to a city green space for such a spontaneous rock-out? What are the limits of private behaviour in a public place?

Such questions came up last year in Trinity Bellwoods, when concerns arose about noise and drinking through the summer in the vibrant and well-used west-end park, where beer cans are often sipped conspicuously and the weed smoke flows free.

Carolyn Wong, a member of the steering committee of Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park, a volunteer neighbourhood group, said the increasing popularity of the park is bringing together people with different visions of how to enjoy the sprawling, tree-lined green space. With the busyness comes tension, said Wong, describing the variety of activities one sees in the park: younger condo dwellers playing music and drinking, people reading or walking dogs, and families visiting with their kids.

“It’s a shared space,” Wong said. “Everyone has a sense of ownership over the park and what it should be. And they clash.”

The city has rules that govern noise, with limits kicking into effect after 11 p.m. When it comes to parks, though, even in the daytime, “no person shall operate loud speakers or amplifying equipment from any source” without a permit, according to city bylaws. There are also rules banning nudity and sexual, violent and “riotous” behaviour in city parks. Fines run as high as $205.

“The bottom line is that everyone has the right to enjoy the park and to respect the other users of the park,” bylaw enforcement officer Rose Burrows said in an email.

Owen, a Toronto resident for the past five years, said he’s fine with acoustic guitars or boom boxes, as long as they’re not too loud. It’s the amplified performance that gets him.

“I think people should be able to act however they want and play whatever music they want, as long as they don’t force themselves into interfering with someone else’s good time,” he said.

Mike Juneau couldn’t agree more. He is one of three curators of the Great Heart Festival, a series of intimate music shows put on in Trinity Bellwoods each June for the past five years. He also arranges spontaneous performances for Canadian indie artists in the park, which are filmed as part of a series called Live in Bellwoods.

Since the performances are acoustic and don’t use loud amps or microphones, Juneau said they pull off the shows without a permit.

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“I don’t think anyone should be able to demand the entire space, either physically or audibly,” he said.

“I think that’s kind of why we’ve been able to have longevity … We’ve considered the space first and the community first.”