The future of the Teatro Barceló nightclub has not ceased to shake since the Madrid City Council issued a decision to close the establishment, as punishment for twice exceeding the limit of 990 people during 2023 – out of only 600 users -. The old Pacha nightclub closed its doors in July of this year in the final turn of the scenario of the ongoing legal war with the Consistorio, after the precautionary measures that imposed justice were lifted last month. All this despite the fact that the defense of Noche Madrid, owner of entertainment and shows in the Community of Madrid, asserted that “the risk of risk has not been overcome” and that there is “no risk to people”. A struggle that condemns nightclub workers and companies in Madrid to a “death penalty,” according to the Osio platform, as attacks on festival hall audiences often mean economic suffocation.
Around the end of the morning, three municipal police agents arrived at the facility accompanied by several municipal government employees to formalize the symbolic festival hall area. It arrives after the court appreciates the precautionary measures requested by the local prosecutor and paralyzes the area for the past two months. But the Barceló Theater lost its lifeline after just one week, as the judge helped the case and decided to lift the precautionary measures. The trial will continue for a year if the appeal against the lifting of the precautionary measures being handled by Noche Madrid’s legal team is unsuccessful. “The intention is to offer the resource as soon as possible and try to make it as flexible as possible, because here there are many families living in this situation and it is a situation for which there is no reason,” confirms Silverio Purcell, one of the lawyers of the leisure association.
The hosts’ argument is that the security standards set by the ADA are “arbitrary”, that the violations do not pose a risk to users and that the problem lies in the regulation that regulates the restrictions: “On the ground, this is the saying ‘Noche Madrid’. However, the Ayuntamiento maintains outdated instructions at all times,” says Purcell. The Urban, Environment and Mobility District came up with these explanations, and its delegate Borja Carabante came back to confirm that over the past few years, overcoming the difficulties at the Barceló Theater “puts the safety of those attending at risk.”
The struggle over aforos in night entertainment venues comes from Lejos. It dates back to 1997, when the Chamber of Deputies, then under the mandate of José María Álvarez del Manzano, approved the General Plan for the Organization of Urban Areas (PGOU). That document created “urban types” that allocated the tax base according to type of activity and allowed exemptions for up to 600 or more people in peripheral areas. “In Madrid, the savings are calculated through the map, not through the security of the site,” criticizes Vicente Pezqueta.
This means that from locations with the same dimensions, emergency exits and evacuation plans can have different costs due to their location in different neighborhoods. In the capital, for 30 years, the number of people allowed on a site depends not only on technical security standards, but also on their location.
For guests, this is… Status quo It has clear consequences: it penalizes firms in the center and, to some extent, favors firms on the margins. In areas like Vallekas, where ZPAE – Special Sound Protection Zones – regulate working hours but do not act with the same severity, local residents can receive more generous contributions. Meanwhile, in the center, where the Teatro Barceló is located, including spaces with sufficient counters and exits, it faces an administrative limit that can only be modified if management is implemented in the ERIU, a measure that allows the economy to be adapted to technical security standards.
La Plataforma por el Ocio insists that there is a “negotiation process” underway between the hostel and the Ayuntamiento. Noche Madrid singer, Vicente Pezqueta, confirms that Carabante promised the entity a false announcement of a hypothetical reform of the Los Avros decree. “We heard about the two meetings: September 10 and October 29. But the document was never read.” Since then he has not received any bad news. The official spokesman for the Consistorio avoids providing details about these negotiations and merely declares that “Unitamiento always maintains dialogue with all sectors.”
The case of Teatro Barceló is not the first, and now Madrid entrepreneurs fear that the problem of losses will affect other venues that are smaller and less popular than the Teatro Barceló nightclub. In June, Coco’s Room, on Alcala Street, was closed after an inspection revealed 898 people in a space officially open to 520 people. The administration ordered an investigation and opened a means to impose sanctions. However, this same file includes a technical report, which, by applying the Technical Building Code, calculates that the site has the capacity to evacuate more than 1,400 people. In August, the court also issued a decision to take precautionary measures in favor of Koko. The contradiction is clear: the Bomberos see it as safe for more helpers, but the agency, which supports itself in the ZPAE, keeps the administrative burden at a low cost.
The confrontation between Ayuntamiento and nightlife is particularly disturbing for hotel professionals because it arrives at a sweet moment for the sector, as the spokesman for the Ocio platform, Jesús Martínez, pointed out this year: “The conflict that is being addressed has an inevitable train shock between buildings and companies in the service sector and there is the urban planning delegation of Borja Carabante at the best moment in the history of gastronomy and nightlife and offers Madrid as a tourist attraction and wealth generator for the city.”