🥠 The Tapa Weekend: January 26
FITUR (obviously), a banned books exhibit and a Chinese food festival.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | January 26, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #38
🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Tapa: Weekend Edition! An English-language newsletter about what to do this weekend in Madrid (plus memes!)
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Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
Another week, another reason to celebrate this weekend and leave your worries behind. So join us on this magical adventure -especially now that it looks like the suspiciously warm weather will last for a few days- to find what Madrid has in store for you starting today and what your best options for escapism are.
And who knows… you might run into us at some point! If you do, don’t forget to say hi. We’re always happy to meet fans that are not members of our immediate family.
See you this weekend (maybe)!
1. FITUR: International Tourism Trade Fair
Since Madrid is home to the HQ of the World Tourism Organization, it makes sense that the International Tourism Trade Fair, also known as FITUR, is one of the city’s highlights every year and has become a must-visit international event.
Representatives from 145 countries come to showcase what their people, culture, history and gastronomy have to offer, along with latest trends and innovations.
This massive event takes place over five days, and thousands of people head over to the IFEMA convention center to discover a wide range of destinations to visit, and try the food (and yes, also drinks) from each location.
FITUR is also a meeting point for tourism professionals and a “very important trade fair for incoming and outbound markets in Ibero-America”—and functions “as a sort of crossroads for many different specialized areas in one place”. So if you’re feeling like traveling the world this weekend, you know where to go.
FITUR. IFEMA Conventions Center. Avda. del Partenón, 5, Madrid. Through Jan. 28. Check website for times. Tickets: €16 (or €12 if you buy online).
2. Bad Books: Censorship in Spain throughout History
Here’s a cool exhibit that’s en vogue, considering how banning books around the world seems to be all the rage these days.
Bad Books: Censorship in Modern Spain, at the National Library, invites visitors to reflect on the historical impact of censorship on the bibliographic heritage, culture, and history of Spain. It explores a period from the late 15th century to the early 19th century when numerous books were prohibited, expurgated, or altered for various reasons.
The exhibit not only looks at historical instances of censorship but also prompts a critical examination of censorship in contemporary society. It suggests that new forms of social, cultural, and political censorship may exist today, influencing the conversation surrounding various topics.
Bad Books opened in November and is initiating a broader program on the impact of censorship in Spanish culture during the modern centuries. The exhibit, which will travel to other location soon, is accompanied by guided tours and academic activities analyzing the exhibited pieces. Check the library’s website for more info.
Malos Libros. National Library of Spain. P.º de Recoletos, 20-22, Madrid. Check website for opening hours. Free admission.
3. China Taste 2024: Getting Ready for the Chinese New Year
Get your sweat pants ready, you’re going to need them this weekend! The Chinese New Year is approaching, so until Feb. 25, the 7th edition of China Taste will be offering some of the most incredible delicacies in Chinese gastronomy to mark the arrival of the Year of the Dragon.
China Taste is a “gastronomic event” that showcases the richness of Chinese cuisine through workshops involving over a dozen incredible restaurants in Madrid that are known for their “authenticity and professionalism”.
The 17 establishments (the list includes top restaurants like Asia Té, Bao Li, China Crown, Chunli, Dim Sum Market and Gran Café Shanghai among others) will be offering special festive menus for the next month so you can try your favorite traditional dishes while collaborating with the Red Cross (a percentage of each menu paid goes to the Red Cross’s various children projects).
China Taste. Check website for participating restaurants. Menus range between €22 and €90.
4. La Veronal’s Firmamento at Conde Duque
The Conde Duque Cultural Center is hosting a challenge thrown down by Marcos Morau, the brain behind La Veronal. His mission? Create a dance show that’s appealing to teenagers. Teens can be a tough crowd, especially when it comes to embracing stuff that's not on their phones, but Morau is confident in his ability to whip up some mind-bending choreography that gets them interested.
Morau's known universe is always fantastic and visually powerful, and will surely capture their attention with works like Pasionaria, with involves strange beings in a galactic environment, or Voronia, a journey to hell with an elevator that’s always going down.
He has created a sensory show that draws on cinema, dance, and theatrical elements that invites audiences to activate intuition and let themselves be guided by memory and the senses, as his dancers move using the "kova," a bodily technique of his invention full of gestures and fragmented movements. It’s all pretty hypnotic so check it out!
Firmamento. Centro Cultural Conde Duque. Calle del Conde Duque 11, Madrid. Through Jan. 28. Check website for time. Tickets: €22.
5. Calixto Bieito’s Lear
Here’s a cool opera hitting the Spanish stage for the first time, and it's based on Shakespeare's King Lear. Aribert Reimann is the composer, and it's helmed by legendary Spanish director Calixto Bieito.
While Berlioz, Verdi, and Debussy have all taken a swing at tackling the story of the aging monarch in the past, it took Reimann to finally dive in, eventually becoming obsessed with turning Lear into an opera. This new version gives us an edgy, fresh experience while keeping things smooth with the vocal vibes.
The result is a full-on operatic journey delving into family drama, mental health, time flying by, and the classic power struggle. It's wild, it's pessimistic, and it's wrapping up with a grand finale massacre. Don't miss the drama!
Lear. Teatro Real, Pl. de Isabel II, s/n, Madrid. Through Feb. 7. 7:30 pm. Tickets start at €22.
👨🏻💻 Viral Story of the Week
💃 Hillary Clinton tries to dance the Macarena
Former Secretary of State and First Lady (and, lest we forget, the person who lost to Trump in 2016) Hillary Clinton was in Spain and took a trip down to Andalucía recently, which inspired a series of “Me and my friend Hils” Insta posts from U.S. ambassador Julissa Reynoso. Hillary also tried to dance the Macarena while in Sevilla, at a party at the Palacio de Dueñas hosted by the Duchess of Montoro, Eugenia Martínez de Irujo—and featuring the duo behind the song, Los del Rio.
Hillary doesn’t entirely deserve the unkind roasted for ‘cringe’ treatment she gets from the New York Post, but let’s say she ‘tried’ to dance it more than she ‘succeeded.’
🔔 A Message From Our Sponsor
Secret Kingdoms is your English bookstore in Madrid. It specializes in Spanish history and literature, contemporary and classic novels, books for children and young adults of all ages, history and historical fiction, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, biographies and much more.
Located on Calle de Moratín 7 — a few blocks away from the Prado Museum — and with over 20,000 new and used books, Secret Kingdoms has something for everyone.
Find out more at www.thesecretkingdoms.com
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