Anger at gridlock caused by concert traffic for top Spanish pop star in Marbella

Spanish singer Manuel Carrasco's widely anticipated concert at Finca de la Caridad in San Pedro Alcántara on Thursday, 14 August, caused kilometre-long traffic jams, resulting in lines of people walking along the hard shoulder of the motorway in a bid to get the event and widespread indignation. Road users and attendees, some of which could not even get to the concert on time, criticised the lack of organisation and preparation for an event of such scope with around 30,000 people expected to congregate at the concert venue.

"We were at a standstill in the car park for an hour and a half. There were kilometres of traffic jams, terrible chaos, people arriving late to the concert due to traffic and poor organisation," wrote Silvia Romero on the artist's Facebook fan page. Many others highlighted the lack of safety measures established prior to the event. Concert-goers agree that "the venue was not properly prepared to receive a show of such magnitude".

The main issue was transport. Many AP-7 toll road and A-7 motorway users queued for more than two hours to access the area. "I live in San Pedro and was on my way home from work. As I saw that there was a traffic jam on the A7, I took the toll motorway and I don't know which was worse. The cars were not moving and we were desperate. I have never seen this," José Sánchez told SUR.

While traffic jams created a problem for local residents of San Pedro Alcántara, some of Manuel Carrasco's fans, who had paid money for a ticket, were not even able to access the concert, even though the musician appeared on stage an hour later than scheduled to allow people to arrive.

Traffic was chaotic both on the way in and on the way out of the venue. It took more than four hours to get from Marbella to Malaga. The car park exit was a "bottleneck". However, traffic was not the only source of complaints for the attendees of the Oasis Marbella Fest (OMF), part of which was the concert on Thursday.

Safety

"I've been to all of Manuel Carrasco's concerts in Malaga province and I've never seen anything like it. What a disaster! We couldn't even move. There were people who fainted in the middle of the show. The lack of security was unbelievable. The place is not prepared for that," said María Dolores Gómez.

"In addition to the stifling heat, there were trees blocking the view and poorly placed screens. We were in a death trap," claimed Isabel Pérez.

Some concert-goers have even discussed filing an official complaint through the municipal consumer information office (Omic).

The concert season at Finca de la Caridad has not finished yet. A new edition of the ElRow Town Festival starts on 23 August, with more than 40 electronic music artists expected to perform on five stages.