At the Primavera Pro conference, held in Barcelona in June, a session on acoustic regulation turned into a broader discussion about who can use a city's outdoor space and on what terms. The starting point was the Stop Concerts residents' platform's fight against the impact of Primavera Sound on the surrounding neighbourhoods of Parc del Fòrum, where the festival took place for two decades.
Lluís Torrents, co-director of Razzmatazz and president of the Associació de Sales de Concerts de Catalunya (ASACC), argued that residents' right to rest is not the only right at stake. He reminded that the Spanish Constitution also protects "the right to artistic production and creation" and commits public authorities to promoting access to culture. Lawyer Belén Álvarez stressed that there is not yet a consistent mechanism in law to weigh these rights when they collide.
What forced the issue was the so-called "Bernabéu effect": after acoustic complaints around the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid, courts began holding the municipal administration liable for the noise. Catalan regulators anticipated similar exposure and began drafting a restrictive decree, but ASACC pointed out an unexpected consequence — in Catalonia, the largest single promoter of outdoor music is not a private company but the public administration itself through Festes de Gràcia, Festes de Sants and dozens of Festes Majors. The decree risked making much of the region's traditional festive life illegal.
After years of negotiations, Catalonia is expected to adopt a new noise decree requiring a "balancing test" to restrict events, weighing residents' rights against cultural rights on a case-by-case basis. Technology also contributes with directional sound systems that aim sound toward the audience. Still, just days before Primavera Pro, Valencia's Festival de les Arts saw its second day cancelled after losing a court case, reminding that this balance is not always achieved.
