Recycling t-shirts to give to race participants or putting up water fountains to refill reusable bottles are some of the measures that the “ecological” festival MadBlue Lifestyle proposes to reduce pollution, despite the waste that the expected 25,000 attendees will leave behind and the noise that a weekend of concerts will generate. The Madrid City Council has given permission to a private company to celebrate this macro event in the Juan Carlos I park, in Barajas, from this Friday, October 4, to Sunday, the 6th. It includes the parallel celebration of a pop music exhibition, Spanish rock and indie, a gastronomic festival of Latin American fusion food and a race “for the Earth” with which they aim to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment. All this in one of the largest parks in Madrid, classified as historic and unique. For Más Madrid, this event only demonstrates that the model pursued by the mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, is that of a “fair city”, in which private interests are prioritized over public ones.
The event organizers plan to outdo themselves. If in 2022, according to data on the festival website, 13,000 attended MadBlue madbluers and in 2023 there were 15,000, this year they expect that almost twice as many people will gather in the 150 hectares of the Juan Carlos I park. José Luis Nieto, councilor for Más Madrid and spokesperson for the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility Commission, highlights that the surface area of public parks that the City Council gives up for these private events is increasing. “Almeida is stealing the green space that the neighbors use every day to play sports, walk, and enjoy with the family. And this adds to the amount of noise and trash that the shows generate,” he says.
The motto of the event has always been to draw attention to caring for the planet and the environment. However, last year it was held in the Parque del Oeste – about 75 hectares – and the residents of Casa de Campo complained about the noise and dirt generated by the attendees, waste that, according to what they reported, volunteers ended up collecting instead. of contracted cleaning teams. Nieto has pointed out that residents “do not want permanent events in public parks, they want to enjoy the green spaces in their neighborhoods.”
Sunday’s concert, in which artists such as Álvaro de Luna and Mikel Izal will participate, will be called From Madrid to the oceansalso to raise awareness about the protection of these ecosystems. Last year, part of the proceeds from the festival – tickets alone cost between 20 and 200 euros – went to an association for the defense of the oceans, the Tuna Skin Foundation. This year it is also one of the promoters of the event, but it has not been reported whether they will again receive part of the benefits. The City Council and the Community of Madrid also appear on the list of collaborators of this foundation that is dedicated to drawing attention to the environment and the loss of underwater life. Its funds go to projects such as cleaning rivers in the capital and its achievements in two years of work have been to group 19 volunteers and collect 170.5 kilograms of waste, according to the data available on its website.
The MadBlue Lifestyle of 2024 comes with several sustainability proposals. At the food festival, there will be no single-use plastic bottles, but rather fountains to refill reusable bottles. They will also recycle cans and glass, compost disposable tableware and use water-saving disposable vacuum toilets. For the race, they will not produce new clothing items, but will use “technical clothing from previous events,” which they will give away in three to each runner.
Nieto emphasizes that Madrid needs a venue to hold these types of events, but that in no case should public parks be privatized. MadBlue Lifestyle is not the first to be held in public spaces in Madrid in the last year. In the same Juan Carlos I park, in summer, the Brilla Madrid Zoo took place, in which 200 sculptures illuminated by thousands of LED lights were installed in 16 hectares of the park, with a cost of 20 euros per ticket, a smaller-scale replica of the event held at Christmas 2023 at the Royal Botanical Garden.
Also last Christmas, in the Enrique Tierno Galván park, in Arganzuela, the light show took place Nature On30 euros per ticket. Other private music festivals were held in that same park, the Pompä Open Air and the Alma, which generated complaints about noise and environmental damage, despite which the latter will repeat in 2025 in the same location. Enrique Tierno Galván is one of the City Council’s favorites to develop his “fair city” project that Mas Madrid denounces, including a project to install a giant Ferris wheel.
This newspaper has asked the City Council if it has evaluated the environmental impact that the festival will have and if it has developed a special waste collection plan, but at the moment there is no response.
#Madrid #City #Council #give #largest #public #parks #ecological #festival #people