The noise battle on the coronary heart of the Bernabéu

Final yr, tens of hundreds of ‘Swifties’ – Taylor Swift followers – thronged Madrid to observe back-to-back live shows on the Spanish capital’s well-known Bernabéu stadium, dwelling to Actual Madrid, who gained Europe’s Champions League closing lower than 24 hours later, on 1 June.

The mega-concert was one among dozens of high-profile gigs staged on the newly renovated stadium in 2024 to spice up the membership’s income.

However the venture was brief lived. In September all gigs had been cancelled after residents residing inside earshot of the music filed a authorized criticism over the noise.

Now, 9 months later, Spanish pop singer Aitana is the most recent artist to change venues from the Bernabéu to the Metropolitano Stadium – dwelling to rivals Atletico Madrid – because the courtroom case rumbles on.

“In each live performance it’s precisely the identical,” says Enrique Martínez de Azagra, president of the neighbours’ affiliation. He and different locals say the sound from live shows like Taylor Swift’s has turn out to be an excessive amount of.

“It’s unimaginable to undergo this sort of noise and it impacts our well being, it impacts migraines, insomnia and coronary heart assaults and it’s a prison offence in our legal guidelines,” provides Enrique.

In Madrid, the noise ranges measured by the neighbours exceeded 90 decibels repeatedly in the course of the live shows.

Ian Marnane from the European Setting Company says that in Europe any stage of 55 decibels or above is taken into account to be dangerous, and continued publicity can result in elevated blood stress and heart problems equivalent to strokes. There are additionally hyperlinks between noise publicity and diabetes.

Enrique says there’s a vital distinction between the noise from the live shows in contrast with that from soccer matches. He and most of his neighbours have lived within the space for many years. Lots of them are life-long Actual Madrid supporters and are on committees that signify the pursuits of the membership.

“Soccer is a sport that lasts two hours, roughly. The noise is regular. Solely when there’s a objective, the fervour surges,” says Enrique. The issue he sees with the live shows is that they spew repeatedly excessive ranges of noise for lengthy intervals of hours at a time.

To scale back their publicity to those excessive ranges of noise, Enrique and his neighbours took Actual Madrid to courtroom.

Sports activities journalist Felippo Maria Ricci believes they’ve a powerful case.

“The Bernabéu is correct within the coronary heart of Madrid. The neighbours who stay there have good positions and know the appropriate folks,” says Felippo. “This battle for the live shows will be fairly lengthy however in the intervening time Actual Madrid is shedding this battle.”

The neighbours say town authorities is hesitant to resolve the problem because it advantages from the tourism and the cash the live shows generate. In accordance with native media stories, vacationers coming for the Taylor Swift live shows alone spent about €25m (£21m; $28m).

Filippo says that the £1.1bn renovation to make the stadium multi-purpose was supposed to supply an enormous monetary enhance to Actual Madrid.

Additionally they signed a contract with a US firm promoting the business rights to the stadium.

“They spent some huge cash to develop a brand new system for the pitch, to take it off once they have the live shows,” says Filippo. “Now all this new tremendous system is kind of ineffective, in the intervening time, all that cash is gone.”

Ed Sheeran, Think about Dragons and AC/DC are among the many acts taking part in on the rival Atlético stadium this summer time.

Madrid Metropolis Council, the Mayor’s workplace and Actual Madrid haven’t responded to requests for remark by the BBC.

Actual Madrid has beforehand stated it’s attempting to sound proof the stadium. In accordance with native stories the membership employed a specialist firm and home windows had been put in within the skywalk space.

Once I put to the neighbours that Actual Madrid is attempting to soundproof the stadium, they chuckled. Enrique works as an engineer and thinks it’s “fairly unimaginable to soundproof the stadium”.

Whereas the Bernabéu’s roof can shut, the stadium isn’t fully closed, as there’s an open hole between the roof and the facade all the way in which across the stadium.

The neighbours say they aren’t towards all live shows.

“We have had live shows up to now, however yearly,” says Pablo Baschwitz, a lawyer and one of many neighbours campaigning for change.

He recollects live shows with music legends equivalent to Frank Sinatra and Julio Iglesias on the Bernabéu – however says having 20 live shows scheduled per yr is simply an excessive amount of.

From the roof terrace of one of many neighbours’ flats the proximity to the stadium is obvious to see.

They level to a well being centre that they are saying struggles to precisely measure sufferers’ blood stress at instances as a result of the sound waves from the live shows disturb the readings of their machines.

Pablo says the live shows aren’t the one drawback – there are additionally rehearsals and sound checks in the course of the day which disturb the local people, together with faculties.

Luis Jordana de Pozas lives proper throughout from the stadium, and a number of the noise measurements had been taken on the inside and outside of his flat.

On his terrace overlooking the Bernabéu, he explains how newly added metallic plates on the stadium’s exterior have amplified the sound, and reveals me recorded movies of the “insufferable” noise.

In Madrid, the facades of the homes across the stadium are lined with banners. Draped from their home windows, balconies and terraces the neighbours put their protest posters on show, studying “conciertos no” (no live shows) and “ruído no” (no noise).

For now, whereas the case is in courtroom, the music has stopped.