Long queues, road access cut off and a single ticket for everyone, these were the big problems that many of the nearly 70,000 attendees at the Mad Cool, a festival that it is only seven years old and that in this edition it was transferred to a specific space located in Villaverde, near Getafe. But the problems were not only for the assistants: thousands of neighbors complained about the excessive noise from concertsas well as the problems derived from having thousands of people queuing in the streets for hours.

Now, the Getafe City Council has issued a statement in which it points directly to the organization of the festival and to the Madrid City Council for not having complied “his promise not to bother the residents of Getafe“, something that would have been ratified in the sound measurements carried out during the three days of the festival. According to the consistory of the city, located in the south of the community, “at least six of the measurements carried out, three inside the house and three abroad” confirmed a “excess noise” that could be classified as a very serious infractionaccording to the regulations.

“Despite the fact that both the residents and the Getafense town hall warned that this problem was going to occur, neither the promoters nor the Madrid City Council did anything to solve it,” they indicate from the Getafense City Council. From the consistory they also remember that these problems have no solution planned for the next few days, when the Harry Styles concert and the Reggaeton Beach festival will be held, as well as another festival next September.

Beyond the noise, they continue, “the residents of Getafe Norte have had to suffer other inconveniences such as the traffic collapse, lack of parking or street closures”they point out, although they remember that the local Police have had to sanction more than 200 festival-goers for parking their vehicles in pedestrian spaces or green areas, in addition to “dozens of sanctions” for drug use.

“Getafe has had to assume an extraordinary service”

In its criticism, the City Council has pointed out that during the three days that Mad Cool has lasted, half of the attendees have passed through Getafe —12,000 on Thursday, 15,000 on Friday and 30,000 on Saturday. “The Local Police cut off one of the exits from Getafe Norte to guarantee the safety of pedestrians, assuming the local consistory an extraordinary service to the municipal coffers for an event that is not celebrated in the city nor has it ever had the necessary coordination”, he adds.

From the consistory they have recalled that the mayoress, Sara Hernández (PSOE), had already alerted the authorities of the problems that they were going to have to face by the venue for macro-festivals installed in Villaverde, a permanent installation. On one of the occasions, Hernández would have requested a meeting with the Councilor for Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility of the Madrid City Council, Borja Carabante, a meeting that, according to the Getafense town hall, has been called for two weeks after the festival.

Hernández would also have asked the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to “mediate in the conflict between municipalities and the defenselessness that the installation of this facility would mean for Getafe”, to which she would have responded “presuming” her participation in Mad Cool “while residents of Getafe suffered countless inconveniences harming their quality of life”.