🫠 The Tapa Weekend: April 28
Featuring a searing heat wave, paquitos and war reenactments.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | April 28, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #5
🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Tapa: Weekend Edition! An English-language newsletter about what to do this weekend in Spain (plus memes because why the hell not).
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☀️ 5 Things to Do in Spain This (Super Long) Weekend
Spring time, we hardly knew ye. Because thanks to the blessings of climate change, a large part of Spain’s territory is experiencing unusually high temperatures this week. They are so unusual that we could see the hottest April day on record, with temperatures potentially hitting 40ºC in some parts of Spain. In fact, southern cities like Granada, Huelva and Córdoba already hit record temperatures for April on Tuesday. So if your significant other invites you to their place for some Netflix and chill on Saturday night, they will probably mean literally chill.
At least Monday and Tuesday are a holiday for many in Madrid, so here are some options for the super-long weekend.
Please hydrate. You’re welcome.
1. Witness the Dos de Mayo Upraising Reenactments
While many around the world get an extra day of rest this May 1, most people in Madrid get to enjoy a four-day weekend and commemorate a new anniversary of the Second of May Uprising, which pitted civilians against the French troops that were occupying the city back in 1808. There are many related events taking place this weekend so we suggest you check the Madrid Community’s official website, but the reenactment of the clash by the Royal Palace this Sunday is by far the best (see video above). There is also a parade marching on that same day through downtown Madrid (Puerta de Alcalá, Paseo del Prado, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor) so make sure to check this schedule for Sunday. Have fun!
Dos de Mayo Upraising Reenactment, Plaza de Oriente, Sunday, April 30, 6:30 p.m. Free admission.
2. If You Never Tried a Paquito, This is Your Chance
[Trigger warning: Vegans look away.]
Great news, everyone, the Ruta del Paquito is back! (If you feel like there’s a new ruta of some kind of food every week, it’s because there is. We Spaniards like to eat).
If you never tried a paquito, this is your chance. Starting today, for the fifth year in a row, around 200 restaurants and bars in Madrid will be offering—for one month only—their own original recipes for this delicious lamb bocata. You can check out the ruta’s official website to find the closest one to you (Barcelona and Valencia are some of the cities also participating). If you weren’t sure about what to it tonight, here’s your solution. Are we aware that this is a campaign organized by the Interprofesional del Ovino y Caprino de Carne in order to boost lamb meat consumption? Yes. Are we still going to eat a few paquitos in the coming weeks? Also yes.
Ruta del Paquito starts April 28. Check the official website for more.
3. Check Out the 45th Antiquarian & Second Hand Books Fair
There are only two good reasons to buy antiquarian books: to see if any of them contain a long lost treasure map, or to put them on your living room shelf to make you look cultivated and rich. We’re kidding, of course. Books are great, no matter what kids on the TikTok** say.
If you love browsing old, rare and collectible books, head to the Paseo de Recoletos near the Cibeles fountain this weekend for this one-of-a-kind book fair. You can find ancient encyclopedias, unusual maps, dusty postcards, out-of-print tomes and even some decades-old issues of Tintin. 37 specialized book stores from around Spain are coming together once more for this outdoor marketplace that offers national and international publications and, we’re told, some great prices. Oh, and if you still need convincing, critically-acclaimed Spanish filmmaker and screenwriter Alex de la Iglesia will be there offering the fair’s opening remarks today at 1 p.m..
45th Antiquarian and Second Hand Books Fair. April 28 to May 15. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.. Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid. Free admission.
** We know you don’t call it “the TikTok”. We’re being sarcastic.
4. Taste a sample of the Primavera Sound in Plaza Mayor for Free
No, it’s not the actual Primavera Sound music festival. That one is in June and costs a bunch of €. But this might as well be a preview of what’s to come. And it’s on a holiday. And it’s free. So why the hell not?
This is the first year that the immensely popular, Barcelona-born festival has a Madrid edition, so expect these promotional pop-up mini-festivals to keep showing up in the coming weeks. Since Madrid is celebrating a really long weekend, this is the perfect chance to give the locals a taste the Primavera is all about. So this Monday expect a giant stage to adorn the Plaza Mayor (sorry, unaware tourists) and welcome performers such as iconic Ana Curra and techno troubadour Joe Crepúsculo (May 1, 6 p.m.), or Christina Rosenvinge and Grupo Expertos Solynieve (May 2, 2 p.m.). Check the official website for more. Be sure to arrive early. It’s free admission, so expect a crowd.
Primavera Festival in Plaza Mayor. May 1-2. Plaza Mayor, Madrid. Free admission.
5. See Nuda and Fall in Love with Acrobatic Theater
A show of acrobatic theater inspired by the eponymous novel by director Daniele Finzi Pasca (Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia), Nuda is a performance “filled with mystery and amazement the depth and the abyss engage in dialogue with a light, luminous world”. With five players on scene, the plot surrounds two identical twins who grew up together in an eccentric family. This is the last chance to go see (it was in Madrid for 10 days only), so make sure you get your tickets before they sell out.
Nuda. Espacio Ibercaja Delicias. Cl. del Parroco Eusebio Cuenca, 63, Madrid. Through April 30. Check the website for times. Tickets start at €17.40.
Bonus Track: The Madrid Río ‘Beach’ is Opening Today, Because Climate Change.
We haven’t been this terrified about a beach reopening ahead of schedule since Jaws. And yet here we are, celebrating that adults and children alike will be able to combat this unbearable heat by heading over to the Madrid Río “beach***” in the Arganzuela district.
The decision to open today was announced yesterday by City Hall as concerns grew that the current heat wave was going to be particularly strong. The city government also announced that it would be opening 17 municipal pools on May 13 to officially kick off the summer season. So if you want to escape the heat at least you now have this option. Is it ideal? No. But it’s better than staying home pondering about the inescapable force of climate change.
*** Not a beach, just an urban park by the Manzanares river with some fountains and a thin sheet of water over cement.
👨🏻💻 Other Headlines of the Week
These are some of the most ridiculous or viral stories in Spain this week that didn’t make our Thursday edition but we felt deserved a (dis)honorable mention today.
💃🏻 All Bow to the New Queen of Reggaeton
Move over Shakira! Spanish TV’s favorite sign language interpreter is back in action this week, and her hips don’t lie either. This isn’t the first time Raquel Díaz has gone viral on social media but, to be honest, this country doesn’t seem to ever get enough of her.
While Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was debating PP leader Alberto Nuñez Feijóo this week, Díaz was given the time to shine (again). During a very heated argument between the two politicians, Sánchez began to criticize his opponent’s decision last month to take part in a political rally targeting the hispanic vote in Madrid that featured controversial evangelical pastor Yadira Maestre, who’s made homophobic comments in the past and whose ultraconservative organization assures can “cure homosexuality”.
Sánchez was trying to contrast this event with his own personal agenda for that day, which involved attending the 28th Ibero-American Summit in Dominican Republic with King Felipe VI. While he was speaking on live television, Díaz had to interpret the following quote by Sánchez, adding a little dance and everything:
“You can’t counter-schedule an Ibero-American Summit with a televangelist who considers homosexuality to be a disease… Turns out the next day I was attending the Ibero-American Summit with his Majesty the King and several heads of state from sister nations, while you were dancing something that seemed to be a mix between merengue and reggaeton.”
(We would have embedded the video here but Twitter won’t let us do that. 😒 )
Anyway, Díaz is a national treasure. Protect her at all cost.
🔫 The Return of the King, Part III
If you didn’t get enough of the ex-King, old Juan Carlos I, during his trip through Spain last week, you’re in luck (sorta). Chilean artist Nicolás Miranda installed a wee statue of JCI pointing a hunting rifle at Madrid’s famous madroño-eating bear (the ‘El Oso y el Madroño' monument) in the Puerta del Sol a few days ago.
However, the statue isn’t exactly a love letter to the former monarch (who may have a secret fourth child, a daughter named Alejandra, we learned this week). Titled “Estrategias parasitarias para la sobrevivencia en un mundo cruel” (“Parasitic strategies for survival in a cruel world”), it is meant to “ridicule the figure of the monarch”, in part by harkening back to the 2012 hunting trip the king took to Botswana during Spain’s financial downturn. A broken hip there forced his (very expensive) emergency evacuation, and the revelation to all of his affair with Corinna Larsen. It was the beginning of the end of his reign, which he abdicated in 2014. The 170 cm. statue only lasted in the spot for 10 minutes before the authorities arrived, but next week it will go on display in La Parcería, a cultural association in the Arganzuela district.
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We’ll be back next week with more.