Eight musicians improvise pounding, thumping patterns on bongo drums. The drummers encircle a few women who sway to the music. Other people kick a Hacky Sack around or mingle and smoke cigarettes in small groups.
This scene is a glimpse of a drum circle that performs every Saturday night at the park next to Tempe City Hall.
But since late December, the group has migrated to the post office at Fifth Street and Mill Avenue at midnight.
This move became necessary after the Tempe Police Department began enforcing a curfew that closes the park at midnight.
"It really sucks because there should be no curfew on this land," said Scott Ball, 31, of Tempe. Ball said he has helped keep the drum circle organized for seven years.
"I have been told by a few of the officers that they don't mind us being there," he added.
The crackdown followed a series of noise complaints from residents at the nearby Lofts at Orchid House, said Sgt. Dan Masters, a Tempe police spokesman. The musicians sometimes played into the early morning hours.
The Orchid House Condominium Association declined to comment.
City codes say all Tempe parks with lighting are closed between midnight and 6 a.m., said Tempe Parks and Recreation Manager Mark Richwine.
"It's just an enforcement of an existing ordinance in the city of Tempe as any other park in the city would have," Richwine said.
Officers usually gave friendly warnings to convince the musicians to leave, Masters said.
Since stricter enforcement began, the police department hasn't had any more complaints from the residents at Orchid House or at the Hayden Square condos near the post office, Masters said.
But Ball said the park area is a preferable venue for the drum circle because people can move around more freely and it's safer. Passing pedestrians who hear the music are also more willing to stop and watch the drummers there, he added.
"We get in trouble because we're congesting the flow of people," Ball said of the performances near the post office.
Sometimes the group faces threats of violence from passersby, he added.
Jesse Meeker, an English junior who plays in a downtown Tempe street performance band, said he was surprised to hear about the move.
"I've never been there when there's been any sort of tense energy," Meeker said. "It's all been pretty laid-back."
When the drum circle performed by the post office, they were often mocked by drunk pedestrians leaving nearby bars, he added.
This made the atmosphere surrounding the performances a lot less enjoyable, he said.
"Hopefully, they'll find a better spot to go to, but I guess we'll find out," Meeker said.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu.
