🌸 The Tapa: Weekend Edition
What to do in Madrid and beyond.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | April 14, 2023 | Madrid
🎉 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).
🇪🇸 If you haven’t subscribed yet, hit that button below so you have some fresh ideas in your inbox every Friday about where to go and what to do. (And if you have, please share this with your friends!)
🌸 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
Last weekend was great because it was very, very long. Almost a glimpse of what our lives would be like if we all worked four days a week, instead of just some lucky, privileged few. Until that happens, all we can do is dream. And/or go out.
Here are some super-duper options for you to choose from this weekend, so for a fleeting moment you can let go of the anxiety that invades you whenever you remember you need to go back to work on Monday morning. Enjoy.
1. Mercado de las Ranas (No frogs in it, we promise)
Don’t let the name of this street market mislead you; it has nothing to do with frogs (in fact, the word “ranas” comes from the name of the street it’s located on). The Mercado de las Ranas is a street market similar to the Portobello Road or Candem Town markets in London. This Saturday, stores participating in this mercado in Plaza Santa Ana, in the Las Letras district, bring their goods outside into the street so visitors can buy their favorite book, t-shirt or grab a slice of pizza on the go. If there’s one thing we love about Madrid, it’s the street market scene, and this one doesn’t disappoint. After a bit of retail therapy, grab a table at the plaza and sip a cool caña. You’re welcome. Mercado de las Ranas, all along Calle de las Huertas. Saturday, April 15, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
2. Los 40 Primavera Pop 2023
Video didn’t kill the radio star! And neither did Netflix. Because Los 40 remains the undisputed king of FM radio in Spain, with nearly 3 million listeners tuning in every day to listen to whatever kids listen to these days. A station so popular had to have a music festival, so welcome to the Los 40 Primavera Pop! The two-hour, pop/rock music extravaganza features local artists like Lola Índigo, Abraham Mateo, Ana Mena, Pablo López and others who gather to celebrate the arrival of the spring. This is quite possibly the most popular music event each year in April, so don’t miss it. Los 40 Primavera Pop. Friday, April 14, 8 p.m., Wizink Center, Palacio de Deportes. Tickets start at €40 (but hurry, tickets are almost sold out).
3. Festival Relevo (Yes, more music festivals!)
This music festival at the Condeduque Cultural Center offers you the chance to come listen today to the bands that everyone else will listen to tomorrow (i.e. hipster paradise). For three days this weekend, the festival will introduce an “eclectic and stimulating” playlist that includes some of the hottest up-and-coming bands, such as Beatrix Weapons, Baloncesto or Sarikaya Komzin. Check out their website as they will also be organizing workshops for those trying to break out in the music industry. Festival Relevo, Condeduque Cultural Center, Calle del Condeduque 11. April 14 to 16. Check website for band schedules. Tickets start at €6.
4. Jazz in the Park feat. Judit Neddermann
Who doesn’t like a live folk/jazz session in the Retiro park? Especially now that the warm weather seems to have finally returned! On Friday evening, Catalan singer and songwriter Judit Neddermann is offering a free concert to present her new album Lar. You may have heard Neddermann’s beautiful voice in a popular duet song with Alejandro Sanz (see video above). If you haven’t, trust us.—it’s worth it. Tickets will be handed out an hour before the event so if you’re thinking of attending make sure you get there early. April 14, 7 p.m. Centro cultural Casa de Vacas, Paseo de Colombia, Retiro Park. Free admission.
5. Antik Passion Almodena (Or the most exciting antiques fair ever)
Those of you into vintage stuff, get ready to be amazed. The Antik Passion Almodena antiques fair opens this Saturday at the IFEMA conference center, and offers the perfect weekend plan for collectors and art and decoration lovers. There will be ancient and vintage furniture, along with toys, carpets, typewriters and lots of art (oil paintings, sculptures, photography). Which means you can find a priceless 18th century painting next to a Beatles record. So if you are thinking of giving your home an extra touch, this is one event you can’t miss. Antik Passion Almodena. IFEMA. Av. del Partenón 5. April 15-23. 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tickets: €10. Buy them here.
Coming up (a.k.a. other things we’re looking at)
The first Festival Internacional de Artes Escénicas mixes theatre, music, dance and circus at a series of events that run from April 20 to June 4 in Madrid. One of them, Le Cirque Invisible, is run by Charlie Chaplin’s daughter Victoria and her husband Jean-Baptiste Thierrée. Oh, and there’s also STOMP.
Meat & Fire comes to Barcelona on June 2, 3, and 4 to celebrate meat cooked over fire. Or, in the words of the debut festival, “30 different grills burning at the same time, different meats and techniques. Live music. Artisans around the world of fire and gastronomy.” We love meat. We love fire. Sold!
👨🏻💻 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.
🕵🏻 For the love of God, it’s just a photo
Internet sleuths were having a field day this week after Equality Minister Irene Montero (from far-left Podemos) posted on Instagram a photo of her with her long time partner and former deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias. The post, innocuous as they come, shows Iglesias guitar in hand, serenading her while she seems to be enjoying it. Right?
WRONG!
Because as with everything on the internet, there HAS to be some hidden message in it. A couple of politicians casually sharing a snapshot of their daily lives makes zero sense in 2023, so everyone (and by “everyone” we mean some people) started overanalyzing the photograph to discover what she meant to say.
The first finding was a white bag that can be seen on the lower left corner of the photo, on top of the coffee table. As El Mundo explains, the bag reads “La meva regla, las mevas reglas” in Catalán (in English, “My period, my rules”) and it’s from a “period bag” handed out by the Catalonian government that contains period products and informational brochures. Aha! So it’s a post about period shaming and the importance of putting a stop to this stigma, right?
Maybe, but that’s not what some people saw. Some people zoomed in on it, saw this and thought: “Is that a line of cocaine on the table?!”
It wasn’t. It was just the bag’s zipper. But this didn’t stop the sharp-eyed detectives from sharing their findings on Twitter. Benoit Blanc would be proud.
As Freud (allegedly) said once, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”. Maybe next time we won’t read so much into things.
👑 Taking ‘God save the queen!’ a bit too far
During a trip to Córdoba, Spain’s Queen Letizia ran into a fan. No, make that a superfan. Well, no, actually, make that a really obsessed abuela who had an undeniable need to express her love for the royals. And we quote: “I love you very much. And your husband and daughters. The rest of them can fuck off. The four of you are excellent, stupendous. I love you, and not just me, all of Spain.” Now imagine each of those sentences bookended with ¡! and you get the point. If Netflix’s The Crown decides to move to Spain someday and cover our royal family, this woman will definitely be in it.
⌛️ In the hot (and sandy) seat
The Andalusian parliament got hot and bothered as the rightwing block of the PP and Vox voted to begin the process to approve a law to legalize irrigation for agricultural hothouses around the Doñana nature reserve. As it would take water from the reserves aquifer, scientists are against the move, as is the central PSOE-led government, ecologists, and the European Commission. You know who else is very much against irrigation around the reserve? Andualusian parliament member Maribel Mora of the left-wing Adelante Andalucía group, who said it would dry up the nature reserve. And to prove how dry, she went and poured a glass of sand on the seat of the Andalucía regional governor, the PP’s Juanma Moreno. Then, well, all hell broke loose. Watch the video above. Never a dull day in this country.
🙏 Once again, please remember to share this newsletter with your friends on social media. The more we grow, the more information we’ll be able to offer each week.
We’ll be back next week with more.
That abuela absolutely cracked me up. The Queen's response as well, just a simple "Vaya". Gold.