I tend to agree with Balzaccom: the point is that, for me, it doesn’t matter how good the musician is, how beautiful the music is, or what the instrument is. If I’m out there to enjoy the sounds of nature (including the silences), I won’t like you very much. Yes, you have the right to enjoy your music. You don’t have the right to inflict it on me when I’m not in the mood to hear it.

I have, when coming upon a group of campsites and finding one of them occupied by musicians with their instruments, simply kept walking up the next hill and down the other side to avoid the intrusion of the evening show. They were there first, so I don’t feel I can ask them to abstain from playing. But I can’t say I was happy about that last bit of hiking.

I have also set up my camp, to have such folks arrive later and invite me to their concert later. When I expressed my desire for silence, they made it clear that they outnumbered me, and my wishes didn’t matter. I broke camp and moved on; I may have expressed the opinion that their parents had never been married. I definitely wasn’t happy about the extra hiking, and did report the incident to the land managers the next day.

One of the LNT guidelines is “Be considerate of other visitors.” Unwanted concerts don’t really fit that.