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.”

  • massive_bereavement@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    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.