‘Like a vacuum cleaner running all day’: noisy nightlife making Spanish streets ‘uninhabitable’

Customers enjoying Ponzano street’s vibrant nightlife. But residents are unhappy about noise from the 60 bars and restaurants. Photograph: Denis Doyle/The Observer

The sun has barely set when the music starts thumping on Madrid’s Calle Ponzano. As queues start to form outside the already heaving bars, the party spills out on to the pavement, leaving customers jostling for space with an ever-growing cacophony of smokers and passersby.

Lost in the fray is the brightly lettered message – pleading with punters to keep the noise down – from banners that flap from balconies above. It is a last ditch effort by those who have found themselves living on the frontline of a battle playing out across Spain as exhausted neighbours face off against raucous drinkers.