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Real Madrid Says Bernabéu Noise Case Over Taylor Swift and Karol G Concerts Has Been Thrown Out
Real Madrid says a Madrid appeals court has ended the Bernabéu noise case tied to Taylor Swift and Karol G concerts.
Real Madrid says a provincial appeals court has thrown out the criminal case tied to noise complaints over concerts at Bernabéu Stadium, where Taylor Swift and Karol G were among the biggest names to play during its push to become a major live music venue.
In a statement released Wednesday, May 13, the club said the Provincial Court of Madrid had brought the matter to a close, effectively ending a legal fight that began in 2024 after residents in the affluent Chamartín neighborhood filed a complaint over noise pollution.
“The aforementioned judicial resolution clearly and categorically concludes that neither José Ángel Sánchez Periáñez, the club’s general director and member of its Board of Directors, nor Real Madrid Estadio S. L. are responsible for any criminal offense in relation to the concerts held at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium,” the club said in its Wednesday announcement. “Real Madrid expresses its satisfaction with this judicial resolution, which confirms the absolutely unfounded and instrumental nature of the complaint.”
The Bernabéu, long Real Madrid’s home, has been undergoing a major renovation for years, with live music positioned as one of its newer ambitions. That plan was on full display in the summer of 2024, when the stadium hosted a run of enormous shows, including Swift’s Eras Tour and Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito Tour.
But the concert push quickly ran into trouble. In September 2024, Real Madrid said it would suspend all concerts over concerns about sound levels coming from the stadium. Around the same time, a Madrid judge accepted a criminal noise complaint filed by Asociación Perjudicados por el Bernabéu, the local residents’ group whose name translates to Neighborhood Association of Those Affected by the Bernabéu, according to the New York Times.
That set off a drawn-out investigation. Sánchez later testified in October 2024, during court proceedings covered by the Times, that any noise problems should be blamed on concert promoters rather than the stadium itself, a position the club has maintained throughout the dispute.
In January, Judge Monica Aguirre de la Cuesta completed her investigation and said a trial should go forward on evidence of a possible “crime against the environment, in its form of noise pollution,” according to the Times. Real Madrid appealed, and the club says the higher court has now sided with it, wiping out the criminal case altogether.
According to Real Madrid, the Provincial Court ruled that this kind of environmental code issue did not justify a criminal case. The club also said the court agreed that concert promoters are responsible “for ensuring compliance with the decibel limits for ambient sound transmission.”
A representative for the court did not immediately respond to a request for the ruling, and Asociación Perjudicados por el Bernabéu also did not immediately respond to Billboard’s request for comment.
What happens next at Bernabéu remains unresolved. The stadium is still undergoing additional construction, including soundproofing, and Real Madrid said last year it expected that work to be completed in 2026. For now, though, the biggest question is whether the venue will return to hosting concerts at all, and when.
