Real Madrid has cancelled or rescheduled all concerts at its Santiago Bernabéu stadium until at least 2025 because of noise complaints.
The Guardian said the club is working to comply with council noise regulations after local residents complained that a series of loud, late gigs had turned the arena into a “torture-drome”.
Real Madrid CF is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid (Spain). The club competes in LaLiga, the top tier of Spanish football.
The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of 85,000, the stadium has the second-largest seating capacity for a football stadium in Spain. It has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947.
The Bernabéu – which has just undergone a five-year, €900 million refurbishment – has hosted a string of high-profile concerts over the spring and summer. Recent headliners have included Taylor Swift, Luis Miguel and the Colombian star Karol G.
The problems began in May 2024, when Taylor Swift performed at the stadium during her Eras Tour. The tour revealed the stadium’s inability to contain the deafening roar of concert speakers and tens of thousands of fans.
Swift’s shows were just the beginning of a much larger problem that only grew worse as more artists and bands took the stage. The sound level kept increasing, and fans got a lot worse, as drunk and rowdy groups took over the entire neighborhood.
In their quest to build a stadium that could host global music stars, Real Madrid hadn’t anticipated the magnitude of the noise problem. As concerts continued, it became clear that the stadium’s open design—which was meant to provide ventilation—was leaking sound into the surrounding neighborhood.
Faced with decibels far exceeding legal levels, a group representing those living around the stadium began legal action against those responsible, including Madrid city council.
The club said in a statement that it had decided to rethink its concert schedule. It said, “Real Madrid FC is announcing that it has decided to provisionally reschedule its event and concert programme at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
“This decision is part of a raft of measures that the club is taking to ensure that the concerts comply strictly with the relevant municipal regulations.”
Despite the introduction of soundproofing measures, “different organisers and promoters” had still found it difficult to comply with council noise regulations, the statement said.
It added: “Real Madrid will continue working to make sure that the necessary sound production and emission conditions are in place to allow concerts to be held in our stadium.”
The statement said concerts by the Spanish artists Dellafuente and Aitana, slated for November and December, would be rescheduled, as would concerts next March by Lola Índigo. A K-pop concert in October has been cancelled.
The club said it was still planning a large number of shows and events to make the most of the revamped stadium, but added: “Real Madrid will continue working with the Madrid regional government and Madrid city council when it comes to sustainability and coexistence, and its aim is always to ensure that the stadium’s activities live up to its commitment to the city of Madrid and are beneficial to the surrounding environment.”
The Guardian further stated that José Manuel Paredes, a spokesperson for the association that was formed in response to the concert noise, said the announcement had come as a temporary relief to those around the stadium but stressed that the group had not abandoned its legal action.
He said the Bernabéu was only licensed by the council to hold sporting fixtures and the odd “extraordinary event.”
He added, “We’ve managed to stop things in the neighbourhood getting worse for at least six months, so things are better. But that doesn’t mean that we’re giving up the fight. The problem is still the fact that the stadium isn’t equipped to be a concert venue, nor will it be. We just need them to follow the law – no more, no less.”
Continue to follow Coliseum for latest updates on venues business news. Coliseum is dedicated towards building the best global community of sports and entertainment venue executives and professionals creating better and more profitable venues.
Become a member of the only Global Sports Venue Alliance and connect with stadiums, arenas and experts from around the world. Apply for membership at coliseum-online.com/alliance and make use of the 365Coliseum Business.