1y ago

Deafening concerts have turned Madrid stadium into ‘torture-drome’, say residents

www.theguardian.com

People living next to Santiago Bernabéu venue say gigs – including those by Taylor Swift – are ruining their lives and are taking action.

Although best known for the past eight decades as the home of Real Madrid, the ground, which has just undergone a five-year, €900m (£756m) refurbishment, has over the past four months been hosting a series of high-profile concerts.

If the gigs have helped put the Bernabéu on the map with visiting singers such as Taylor Swift, Luis Miguel and, for four consecutive nights this week, the Colombian star Karol G, they have driven local residents to despair. Some have taken to referring to the stadium as a torturódromo, or torture-drome.

Fed up with decibels far exceeding legal levels, fans camping out in parks, drunk people urinating in doorways and the blocking off of residential roads, an association representing those living around the Bernabéu in the Chamartín neighbourhood is taking legal action against those responsible, including Madrid city council.

“It’s just hideous – you can’t move your car, you can’t take the dog out, and you’re having to prepare yourself mentally because it’s awful,” says De Pontevès. “It also creates health problems – lots of us are suffering from more frequent headaches, stress, anxiety and depression.”

23 comments

- Honestly in this age of over cautious health and safety it's complete madness easily quantifiable permanent damaging volume is allowed.
  Like even a warning and free earplugs are not given. Nothing.
  "Here you go children. You pay we will give you a life long disability."
  
  This and super bright car headlights
- Even just regular bars. I keep earplugs on my keychain to bring any time I go out. It's absurd that anyone thinks this is acceptable.
  
  I forgot mine once but happened to have two AAA batteries in my pocket. I looked weird but I can didn't go deaf. (It was a seated event.)
- Its because every fucking audio engineer the last 2 decades has fallen into the "louder trap" until the noise floor and ceiling are one in the same. Every fucking venue I've ever been to has always violated safe decibel levels. Always bring hearing protection these audio engineers have just been fed "louder better" for a long time.
  
  Did anyone see Civil War in theaters? Literally the loudest movie I’ve ever seen. It was on the verge of painful. I get it, immersive war, whatever. But Jesus. Some of us would like to keep our hearing into our 40s/50s, thanks.
- The last movie I went to in the theatre, I put in earplugs from the get go. I haven't been to many movies in the theatre in decades, but I wanted to be cautious.
  I could hear every sound from the movie with great clarity. Every whisper was still loud enough to bust through the earplugs. It's just insane how loud they set it all up to be. How is that a good and attractive thing?
  
  I do it every Christopher Nolan movie. There was an interview with him after Interstellar released and they read him some of viewer reviews. One of them was just "it's pretty loud", and he just laughed...
  Love most of his work, but I'm not losing my hearing over it. They're not that good.
- I use hearing aids since I was a kid and have to take them off when going to the cinema in order to hear normal.
Four days of Karol G is enough to take this to The Hague.
- Four days of Karol G and I would be the one getting taken to The Hague
The solution is obvious, but there must be some money changing hands unseen to prevent it from happening
- You’re pointing at two separate la Liga team’s home stadiums though. And as the article said, the Santiago bernabeu has been there 80 years. Two derby rivals sharing a stadium is beyond unthinkable, especially with two of the three biggest teams in Spain. They also need a place to train every single day. And the games often happen at the same time, across town.
  This is a new problem since the refurbishment. The problem isn’t the location. The problem is the concerts. These locals haven’t been complaining about the football fans because they’re all almost certainly part of that group. But not everyone wants to see concerts or listen to them through their apartment walls.
  
  What I’m saying is that they should hold the concerts at Metropolitano
So now it doesn't seem so bad surrounding stadiums with massive parking lots.
Edit: why are you booing me? I'm right!
- Well, those massive parking lots are a thing because 100% of the attendance comes in a car.
  It happens that in European cities, the majority of people go to those mega-events events by public transit or Taxi.
  Are you going to put parking lots just to burn up space? If that was the case, then no need for asphalt, trees absorb sound better than asphalt.
  Lisbon's big arena is in a fast to reach part of the city that is surrounded by a lot of stores and offices and basically no housing. That's the way to do it. Is a 3 minute walk away from the subway.
  
  I was mostly joking, I think going to an arena by car is downright stupid and I've been trapped in traffic, even though we left early to "beat traffic".
  I have also experienced an european event and we left by being mashed in a crowded carriage like the potatoes you love so much.
  So swings and roundabouts, but I'll still take the sub rather than the car.
- Yeah there are real advantages, the o2 arena in London is well placed too - surrounded on three sites by the river and a big carpark to the south.

23 comments