Real Madrid’s $1.9 billion stadium cancels all concerts because the music was too loud

Real Madrid has officially suspended all concerts at its newly renovated Santiago Bernabéu Stadium until at least 2025. The hiatus is the culmination of months of escalating complaints, technical failures, and broken promises that turned the futuristic stadium into a noisy nuisance for Madrid residents.

The problem began in May 2024, when Taylor Swift performed at the stadium during her Eras Tour. Swift’s concerts were supposed to be a victory lap for Real Madrid’s ambitious $1.91 billion transformation of the stadium into a multifunctional space that would bring in money year-round, even when the team wasn’t playing. Instead, 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.

Now, after months of mounting pressure from local residents and government officials, Real Madrid finally pulled the plug, issuing a statement confirming that all upcoming concerts, including major acts by popular Spanish singers Aitana, Dellafuente, and Lola Índigo, would be postponed sine die. A K-Pop festival scheduled for October 2024 was outright canceled.

According to Real Madrid, this decision was made to ensure compliance with municipal regulations. “Real Madrid has decided to reprogram its event and concert agenda at the Santiago Bernabéu provisionally,” the club announced.

The Bernabéu’s $1.91 billion redesign disaster

Real Madrid had spent over six years and $1.91 billion transforming the Bernabéu into a futuristic stadium, capable of hosting not just soccer matches but a wide range of large-scale events. Designed by L35 Arquitectos, gmp Architekten, and Ribas & Ribas Arquitectos, the renovation aimed to create a venue that could adapt quickly to different types of events with state-of-the-art features.

At the heart of this redesign was a retractable roof, supported by two massive steel trusses, each spanning 577 feet across the stadium, and a retractable pitch that could be swapped out for a solid concrete floor in just 25 minutes. The entire roof system was built with 33,000 tons of steel—equivalent to 120 Airbus A380s. This allowed for rapid transitions between soccer matches, concerts, and other events.

But 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. The promises made by Real Madrid and the city weren’t enough to stem the tide of complaints.

In July 2024, a judge accepted a lawsuit from the Association of Neighbors Affected by the Bernabéu, which accused Real Madrid of violating city ordinances. The lawsuit pointed out that the stadium’s construction permits didn’t include non-football events, and that Real Madrid hadn’t conducted noise prevention studies before hosting concerts.

Finally, faced with the legal challenges, the technical limitations, and a gigantic public image crisis for a sports club that prides in its heritage and respect for fans, the city, and the country, Real Madrid decided to suspend all concerts until the issue could be resolved. The club acknowledged the need for more stringent soundproofing measures and promised to resume events only when they could guarantee compliance with city regulations..

Unsurmountable pressure

“We know this is a battle won, but not the war,” said Enrique Martínez de Azagra, a spokesperson for the neighborhood association that filed a lawsuit against the club back in March, before the club finally made its announcement. Their frustration grew as they witnessed drunken concertgoers urinating in public, trampling gardens, and leaving the streets littered with trash. A fight between concertgoers during one event even ended in a man’s death, adding to the sense that things were spiraling out of control.

Amid mounting legal pressure and public outcry, Real Madrid and Madrid’s City Council began implementing a series of fixes. They tried everything—installing acoustic screens and soundproofing, enforcing a curfew of 11 p.m., and promising neighbors that improvements were on the way. In July 2024, Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida announced that the city had capped the number of concerts to twenty per year, hoping that this would alleviate the pressure.

But none of these efforts worked. In fact, they got worse. The acoustic curtains and soundproofing installed by Real Madrid didn’t reduce the noise to legal limits. Concerts like Romeo Santos’s in July 2024 still resulted in noise complaints. During Santos’ performance, tensions boiled over between the artist’s technical crew, stadium staff, and city officials, resulting in power outages during the concert. From the stage, Santos blamed city officials for the technical disruptions, further stoking the tension.

The way forward

Now, the only chance to fix this may be in the hands of a British company called Vanguardia. Working alongside Arup, another major engineering consultancy, Vanguardia is allegedly developing a plan that involves installing acoustic curtains and nanogel screens to contain the noise within the stadium (we contacted Vanguardia for comment but have yet to receive replies). These measures are expected to take at least six months to implement but it’s not clear how—or if—they are going to work.

Real Madrid is hopeful that the new soundproofing system will allow them to resume concerts in 2025, but skepticism remains high among local residents. While Vanguardia has a strong track record of solving sound issues in venues like Wembley Stadium and London’s O2 Arena, many believe that the Bernabéu’s open design poses a unique challenge that may be impossible to solve. “We will continue working to ensure that during concerts, the necessary conditions in production and sound emission allow them to take place at our stadium,” Real Madrid said in an official statement.

Right now, the future of large-scale events at the Bernabéu depends on whether Vanguardia or anyone else can fix what went wrong, a $1.9 billion design flaw that somehow was overlooked (or purposely ignored). Until they can pull that feat off, the shiny steel-cladded spaceship called Santiago Bernabéu remains stuck in hyperspace as the club finishes the last touches to the parks surrounding it.