☀️ The Bubble Weekend: March 28
The sun is back. Get ready.
Madrid | Issue #91
🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Bubble: Weekend Edition!
🤑 The Bubble offers paid subscriptions, and we’d be thrilled if you bought one to help build this enterprise we’ve had so much fun creating. And a big THANK YOU to those who already support us!
🫶 And if you have, please share this with your friends!
⚠️ But first, a quick message! ⚠️
Would you like to go to a party? The organizations Madrid Futuro and Foro por Madrid are inviting us to participate in a project aimed at building community among Madrid’s international residents, which we believe could be of great interest to all of us (especially now that Madrid is the coolest place on earth).
Baby step. As a first step, they have created a survey to gather the opinions of internationals on various aspects of Madrid life. We encourage you to complete it through the following link:
Confidential…and fun! All data will be treated anonymously and the results will be presented at an initial
welcome eventparty party 🎉 for the international community, open to everyone who registers upon completing the survey.
🙏 We encourage you to participate so we can all hang out at their soiree soon.
Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
It’s raining sunny again!
This is it! This is your chance! After centuries of nuclear winter and acid rain, Madrid is back, baby. And if the weather apps are to be believed, we’re in for some sunny skies this weekend.
Yes, it’s still cold but who cares? Put on your jacket and head over to the park with your friends. Do brunch. Hold hands. Sing Hello, Sunshine. Because the spring has finally sprung and you have three months to be summer body ready.
If you still want to spend some time indoors, here are a few activities that we think you’ll enjoy.
Have fun!
1.🦸 Madrid Comic Book Fair 2025
Attention, comic book fans! You may not need to wait until Comic-Con Malaga later this year to get in touch with your inner geek.
Madrid this weekend becomes the epicenter of comic books with the first-ever comic book fair, featuring a diverse program that brings together national and international figures.
There will be a total of 36 booths featuring specialized Madrid comic book stores, roundtable discussions, meets-and-greets, interviews with authors, workshops, film screenings, live radio broadcasts, and much more.
The four-day event features prominent personalities from the comic scene such as Richard McGuire, author of the graphic novel Here (2014), followed by a screening of last year’s film adaptation with the same name (directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright).
Activities will be spread across three venues: Casa del Lector, Matadero, and Cineteca. At the latter, under the theme “Female Filmmakers, Female Comic Authors”, attendees can enjoy film screenings and reflect on the relationship between cinema, comics, and their female creators.
The fair is curated by comic book critic and pop culture researcher Elisa McCausland, who has chosen three central themes for this inaugural edition: “the home as a narrative unit, the city as a space for artistic experimentation, and multiverses as opportunities for connection.”
🖥️ What: Madrid Comic Book Fair 2025
📍 Where: Plaza de Legazpi 8, Matadero, Madrid
📅 When: Through March 30, check website for schedule
🎟 Tickets: Check website
2. 🎤 Vicente Navarro at Conde Duque
Cancel whatever plans you have for tonight. Vicente Navarro, the half-Madrileño, half-Manchego folk singer, is premiering a new project that’s equal parts ancestral ritual and modern reinvention.
In case you’re confused, this isn’t your grandmother’s folklore—though she’ll absolutely recognize the soul of it. Navarro has gone digging through the traditional songbooks of the Castilla-La Mancha region, grappling with how to keep their essence while letting them speak to a new generation.
The result is a delicate, haunting, and very current conversation between past and present wrapped in layered vocals, poetic lyricism, and just a touch of synth.
This is a one-night-only event. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a ghost in your own city, carried away by music that’s older than Madrid’s downtown but is filtered through someone who probably also listens to Rosalía, this one’s for you.
Maybe bring tissues. Just saying.
🖥️ What: Vicente Navarro “Lo que no he llegado a cantar”
📍 Where: Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Calle del Conde Duque, 11, Madrid
📅 When: March 28, 8 p.m.
🎟 Tickets start at €12
3. 🎭 A play: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Get ready for the premiere of a bold new adaptation of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cult classic about love, loneliness, and the fine line between devotion and domination.
This version, directed by Rakel Camacho and starring Spanish film actress Ana Torrent, revives Fassbinder’s 1971 masterwork with fresh visual force. It’s “part Brecht, part American melodrama and part queer fever dream”.
The plot revolves around Petra, a powerful fashion designer with a twisted sense of intimacy, who grows obsessed with Karin, a young woman with has nothing but plenty of ambition. Get ready for spiraling passion, manipulation, and existential monologues.
The play has an interesting backstory, as it was written mid-flight between Berlin and LA (makes us wonder what we’re doing with our lives). Petra von Kant is pure Fassbinder. It’s brutal, beautiful, and unafraid of silence.
🖥️ What: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
📍 Where: Paseo de la Chopera 14, Matadero, Madrid.
📅 When: Through April 20. Check website for show times.
🎟 Tickets start at €15.75
4.🎾 Madrid’s Oldest Sports Venue: the Frontón Beti Jai
It doesn’t matter if you’re not into sports, you should go just to check out the architecture.
Tucked away in Chamberí, the Beti Jai frontón is one of Madrid’s best-kept historical secrets and now that the spring is here, you should definitely go check it out (also it’s free!)
Built in 1894 to host Basque pelota matches (imagine a mix of tennis and handball), Beti Jai was a full-blown 19th-century sports palace with seating for 4,000 spectators and a marvel of its time. Once the matches stopped in 1918, it entered its weird, post-sport phase. It became a garage, a plater workshop, a police station, even a jail!
On its 130th anniversary last year—and after years of restoration work—the Beti Jai finally got the love it deserved and it opened to the public. Inside, you’ll find a new Interpretation Center, housed in the original hallways and galleries, where you can explore the building’s rich and chaotic history—from the golden age of pelota to its many rebirths.
Step into 19th-century Madrid (minus the corsets and coal dust) and visit one of the city’s most curious landmarks.
🖥️ What: Frontón Beti Jai
📍 Where: Calle del Marqués de Riscal, 7, Madrid
📅 When: Check website for opening hours
🎟 Tickets: Free admission
5. IlustraweekMadrid 2025’s Iconica Madrid
The Espacio Cultural Serrería Belga becomes an open-air gallery for IlustraweekMadrid 2025, with an exhibition that reimagines Madrid’s most iconic symbols through the eyes of 16 wildly talented illustrators.
Think the Bear and the Strawberry Tree, El Rastro, El Retiro, Teatro Español, or Cibeles—but recast in bold lines, neon palettes, and fresh, modern styles. Curated by El Duende magazine, the show takes over the patio of the Serrería Belga, transforming it into a graphic playground under the sky.
The lineup? A dream team: Abe The Ape, Alberto Miranda, Andrea Devia, Ana Jarén, Buba Viedma, Carmen Casado, David Despau, El Chico Llama (one of our favorites!), El Dios de los Tres, Inés Maestre, Laura Breitfeld, Sara Herranz, Taquen, Teresa Wnka, and more. Expect color. Expect weirdness. Expect to rethink your mental map of Madrid.
This is just one highlight of IlustraweekMadrid 2025, a city-wide festival dedicated entirely to illustration running until April 5 across over 40 venues and featuring over 100 creators.
It’s Madrid seen through a different lens and it’s not just beautiful, it’s bold!
🖥️ What: Icónica Madrid
📍 Where: Espacio Cultural Serrería Belga, Calle de la Alameda 15, Madrid
📅 When: Through April 20. Check website for opening hours.
🎟 Tickets: Free admission
👨🏻💻 Viral Stories of the Week
🌧️ The rain that wouldn’t stop, in song
🍿 Famous Spanish media memes and scandals turned into anime
How many do you know?
🔔 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
🙏 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.