☀️ The Tapa Weekend: June 21
A croquetas route, European Music Day and F6's 10th year anniversary.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | June 21, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #59
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Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
Happy Friday, everyone!
Summer is officially here and yet the last few days have been suspiciously colder than usual. Also, yesterday was the longest day of the year, which means that we’ve reached peak sunlight and everything is downhill from here until 2025.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun this weekend, though. Felipe VI is celebrating an anniversary, there’s tons of music festivals, probably some indy film festival (seriously, there’s one every week in this city) and a million other things.
As usual, we select the best five things to do (best according to us, obvi) so you can look cool in front of your friends tonight. Adulting is hard (and organizing activities with friends is harder), but we make it easier for you.
Enjoy.
1. Croquetas at €1.50 in Lavapiés This Weekend
Croquetas lovers rejoice! Lavapiés is bringing back the much-anticipated International Tapas Day and setting the stage for Tapapies 2024. Seriously, if there’s one thing you choose to do this weekend, it’s this one.
26 local bars and restaurants will showcase their unique takes on croquettes (each priced at just €1.50), so whether you're a tapas aficionado or a curious foodie, trust us when we say that this event is an explosion of flavors to delight your taste buds.
One of the highlights is the live cooking event at the Citynizer Plaza Lavapiés, where you’ll be able to watch chef Javi Estévez’s demonstration how to make four different types of croquetas (which you can later use to impress your friends, family and TikTok followers).
There are options for everyone: vegan, exotic, castizas… you can’t go wrong. Just get ready to eat a lot of them because let’s face it, croquetas are a gift from heaven and you can never have too many of them.
El Económico, El Quijote, El Rincón Guay and many other restaurants and bars are participating in this tapa route, so make sure you plan your gastronomic journey to explore the rich culinary landscape of Lavapiés. Remember to wear your sweatpants!
Dia Mundial de la Tapa 2024. Multiple locations around Lavapiés. Through June 23. Check website for locations in Lavapiés.
2. European Music Day 2024
The European Music Day at Matadero (or DEMM, in Spanish) is one of those must-attend events of the summer. On its 15th edition this year (it started in 2009!), this music festival has witnessed the ups and downs of the indie scene, the birth and rise of local and international bands, and is considered “a beacon illuminating the progress of new musical genres and trends”.
So what’s happening this year? As usual, the DEMM aims to be a thermometer of contemporary music, with an international lineup that brings together rock, pop, and electronic music, kicking off the summer in style. (Also, no reggaeton, praise baby Jesus.)
The good news? It’s free! The bad news? It’s sold out for tonight, but you can still try to get your tickets online for tomorrow’s show. And who’s playing tomorrow? There’s Karne Culture (electronic, Spain), Erika de Casier (pop, Denmark), Horse Meat Disco (electronic, U.K.) and John Talabot (electronic, Spain).
These are all people and bands you never heard of, so this is your chance to be a trendsetter and look down on others who two years from now say the’ve discovered Horse Meat Disco. (Great name for a band, btw. And they sound amazing.)
Oh and there will also be a Cineteca featuring music documentaries, which will help better understand the creative processes of how some our favorite musicians work their magic.
European Music Day 2024. Matadero Madrid, Plaza de Legazpi, 8. Madrid. June 21 & 22. Check website for program and schedules. Free admission.
3. Rosario de Velasco at the Thyssen Museum
Another fun fact: you probably have no idea who Spanish figurative painter Rosario de Velasco is and that’s OK because we don’t judge people here. Know her or not, her work is captivating and you now have a chance to discover it thanks to the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (check the video above for more).
Done in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia, this temporary exhibit brings the most important artwork of her career, featuring 30 paintings that range from the 1920s to the 1940s. Oh, and there’s also a section dedicated to her work as a graphic illustrator too.
Some of the exhibited paintings are well-known works that are currently on display in other museums, such as the oil painting Adam and Eve or The Massacre of the Innocents. What’s interesting is that many of the works presented at this exhibit belong to private family collections, so there are several of them that were relatively unknown until recently.
Through this selection of paintings, drawings, and illustrations, the exhibition promises to help rediscover and highlight the work of one of the great artists of Spanish art in the first half of the 20th century. Check it out if you’re into art.
Rosario de Velasco Exhibit. Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Paseo del Prado 9, Madrid. Through September 15. Check website for opening hours. Tickets: €13.
4. Danza en la Villa IV
The Danza en la Villa dance festival is back for its fourth edition and it’s offering a few great options for those of you who are not into croquetas, EDM or paintings.
The comprehensive program includes top choreographers and dancers, and performances by leading companies in contemporary dance, flamenco, dance-theater, urban dance, traditional, and neoclassical dance, among others.
This Friday and Saturday, LaMov Ballet presents Tempus Fugit, a new production adding to the company's extensive repertoire featuring eight dancers. Directed and choreographed by Víctor Jiménez, it is a “frenetic and exciting journey representing the passage of life and what we leave behind”.
“In Tempus Fugit, the dancers' movements are explosive, dynamic, at times extreme, and infinite. The performance is a frenetic, passionate, and even painful journey, representing the passage of life and what we leave behind. Tempus Fugit is beauty, it is love, it is pain, it is laughter, it is ashes...”
If you’re still not sold on it, here’s a sample so you can check it out. We promise you, it’s worth it.
Danza en la Villa IV. Fernando Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa, Plaza de Colón 4, Madrid. Through June 30. Check website for schedules. Tickets start at €22.
5. Video Mapping Outside the Royal Palace
(Tonight is your last chance to see this one, so you may need to cancel your plans - if you have any).
You of course know this but King Felipe VI (or as we like to call him, F6, which sounds like a Vin Diesel movie), has been celebrating the tenth anniversary of his proclamation as King this week. It’s been cool and all. Fighter jets in the sky, cannons being fired and honor lunches with the VIPs. You know, what you would usually do on your wedding anniversary.
And to commemorate this special date, Patrimonio Nacional is organizing two cool things for you to do.
The first one (the coolest), is a video mapping show that is being displayed on the facade of the Royal Palace at night (you can check it out in the video above from two nights ago when it started and the Royal Family attended). It’s free admission and open to all subjects.
Tonight is the last show with several scheduled performances at 10:45 p.m., 11:00 p.m., 11:15. p.m. and 11:30 p.m.. (As you can see, we Spaniards don’t care about your plans to be in bed by 10 p.m. on a Friday night. We eat dinner at 10:30 p.m. every day so going out at midnight to a family friendly event is totally normal).
The other thing also worth visiting? A temporary exhibit at the Royal Palace that presents and celebrates the King and Queen of Spain throughout the first decade of their reign, featuring a tour that includes videos and photos showcasing significant institutional moments.
Whether you’re into the Royal Family or not, it’s worth a visit. Especially for the video mapping.
Felipe VI’s Anniversary Celebration. Royal Palace of Madrid, calle del Bailén s/n, Madrid. Video Mapping: June 21st (evening), free admission. Temporary exhibit: Through Oct. 20. Tickets start at €20. Check website for opening hours.
👨🏻💻 Viral Stories of the Week
🦈 We are petrified by sharks and now a giant one showed up in the Canary Islands so you should be too
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🙀 People are scandalized by that 27m2 Madrid apartment being sold for €200k. Like really scandalized
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We’ll be back next week with more.
That 'delightful attico' is an absolute horror show; and I say that even in light of an apartment in Barcelona being offered as a holiday rental for *twenty five thousand euros a month* this summer (https://www.reddit.com/r/Barcelona/comments/1djv5be/alquiler_piso_por_25000_al_mes_durante_la_copa/). At least the holiday rental is 'designed by Frank' LOL.