🍹The Tapa (Long) Weekend: May 12

Featuring rooftop fun, San Isidro and—you can't ignore it—Eurovision.

May 12, 2023

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | May 12, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #7

🎉 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!

Did you see a suspiciously high number of Instagram stories featuring your friends drinking Aperols in the sun on top of a building last weekend? That’s because rooftop season is officially open. From Picalagartos to the 360º Sky Bar across the street from Plaza España, grab your friends and take them there. Long lines? Sure. Overpriced drinks? Also sure. But considering the long winter we’ve had, it’s time to be a little closer to the sun.

Also guess what…it’s another long weekend! Yes, this Monday the community of Madrid is celebrating San Isidro so you get another extra day of drinking. Oh, and it’s also Eurovision weekend! So you can’t say you don’t have any options.

Enjoy.

1. Madrid Rooftop Week 2023

Put on your shorts, grab your sunglasses and wallet and head downtown because Madrid Rooftop Week is officially starting today! In case you haven’t noticed, the last few years have seen an explosion of rooftop bars and restaurants located on and around Gran Vía. Every single respectable hotel in the area is competing to become the “it” place for locals and foreigners who love to savor a glass of tempranillo while admiring the city skyline. Ginkgo, Picalagartos, Azotea del Circulo, 11 Nudos, Casa Suecia…the list of options is endless and if you were waiting for a chance to visit them all, this is it. From May 12-21, make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to look at some great sunsets from a tumbona. You can thank us later.

Madrid Rooftop Week. May 12-21. Multiple locations. Tickets start at €8. Check Fever’s website for more information.

2. San Isidro Festivities Are Taking Over Madrid

OK, this is a big one. San Isidro Labrador is the patron saint of Madrid. So every year in May, the San Isidro festivities turn the streets into a city-wide party—with loads of live music, beer festivals, workshops, bike tours and Plaza Mayor, Matadero and Pradera de San Isidro all being turned into a non-stop cavalcade of cool things to do. Oh, and expect to see lots of people wearing traditional castizo garments. Because in order to play the part, you need to look the part.

There are so many options that it’s hard to add them all here, so we suggest you do a bit of research. Make sure you download the official program booklet (yes, it’s a 40-page booklet) on PDF so you can organize your schedule. Just know that you will definitely not be able to see it all.

Plaza Mayor will see an 80s party, a Marta Sánchez concert and a Madrilenian dance festival during the long weekend. At the same time, Matadero will host several DJ parties, Alice Wonder, and many more options.

Then there’s the street parties, the bar celebrations, the orchard workshops, the special San Isidro restaurant menus…it’s pretty crazy. And fun!

One final highlight for this long weekend: on Monday at around 10 p.m., the Retiro Park lake will be turned into a giant stage for a zarzuela (kind of like a Spanish opera) lights show. The Madrid Community Orchestra and Choir will be interpreting a series of zarzuela choirs and preludes so if you want to see this make sure you get there early.

San Isidro Festivities. All around Madrid. May 12-15. Seriously, check the official program.

3. Alejandro Monge’s SHIBUYA Y BRKLN Exhibit

(Image via Fundación Maria Cristian Masaveu Peterson)

If you’re into urban art and haven’t seen Alejandro Monge’s exhibit yet, head over to the Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson’s Street Art Space and check out his latest work titled Shibuya y BRKLN. Monge is considered one of the most multifaceted Spanish artists in the urban art scene and his sculptures (created with resin, cement and fiberglass) can be admired in Room 9 of the foundation.

In Shibuya y BRKLN, the artist sought to represent his own generation from an “urban and globalized perspective, a multicultural and diverse scene that transcends all borders and represents the new cultural heritage of the generations that have grown in a globalized world united by the internet and new technologies”. Don’t miss it.

Fundación María Cristina Masaveu. Alcalá Galiano 6, Madrid. Daily until May 28. Free admission.

4. After All Springville by Miet Warlop

Have you seen the video above? If not, you should. At least then you’ll know what you’re dealing with. After all Springville. Disasters and amusement park is a surreal show centered around a house, animate objects and a bunch of humanoid creatures that interact with each other and constantly engage in drama while speaking a language that sounds like gibberish. For 45 minutes, this fun show plays with the audience’s imagination, as a fuse box and a table seem to make friends and pose for selfies.

There’s fireworks and even a shootout. So if you’re trying to hide from the San Isidro festivities, this may be an interesting option for you.

After all Springville by Miet Warlop. May 13-14. Teatros del Canal, Cea Bermúdez 1, Madrid. Tickets start at €20.

5. 🇪🇺 Eurovision, baby!

In case you didn’t notice, it’s Eurovision weekend and the entire planet is excited about this.

OK, maybe not the entire planet but we are for sure.

With the event taking place in Liverpool this year, local fans are pretty excited about Blanca Paloma, who will be representing Spain this Saturday with her electro-flamenco song EAEA, which as it turns out, is a lullaby, even though it may not sound like it.

Last year Spain came pretty close to winning with Chanel’s SloMo. Who’s to say we can’t do it this year? So find some friends who are into Eurovision and make sure you get invited to their Eurovision viewing party. A fun night, guaranteed.

Eurovision Song Contest. Saturday, May 13. 9 p.m. You can watch it live on RTVE 1.

👨🏻‍💻 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.

🏎 Trading in a Twingo for a Mercedes

We last heard from Shakira a month ago, when she was moving to Miami from Barcelona— “the city where I learned that friendship lasts longer than love.” After, you know, her marriage with Gerard Piqué fell apart over the Other Woman and she recorded BZRP Music Sessions #53, the song where she compares Piqué’s new girlfriend to a Twingo and says real women don’t cry, they make bank.

Since then, Shakira has apparently moved on. Last weekend, she was photographed hanging out with Tom Cruise at the Miami Formula One Grand Prix. They two spent time hanging out at the race’s starting grid and then chatted some more in a private hospitality suite. “He is extremely interested in pursuing her,” a source told Page Six. “There is chemistry.”
But no, there’s more! Shakira was later seen enjoying a boat ride (and also a dinner) with Lewis Hamilton, the British Formula One racing driver who competed in Miami (he came in sixth).

Hamilton drives for Mercedes, so you know the joke that followed, right?!

🗳 Campaigning 101

The 28M regional elections are a whole 16 days away, so we can hope that the campaigns are just trying to clear out their embarrassing moments before things get serious. But…we have out doubts that things will improve.

This week saw Madrid regional presi Isabel Díaz Ayuso double down on the PP’s already cringe-y “Ganas” campaign of several weeks ago with a new ad that raises some serious questions about her campaign strategist—beyond the ones from the previous ad to do with non-synchronized snapping and the fact that she looked like she wished she were anywhere but in the video.
Now the questions include why is she squatting in the Puerta del Sol? Is she experiencing extreme lumbar pain? Is she exhausted from the intense heat of Sol, made even more unbearable by her allied city government’s recent renovation of the square—which left it with exactly zero trees. And why does she—and apparently everyone else in Madrid—then start snapping (again)?

Ayuso is not alone in electoral cringiness, however. Current socialist PM Pedro Sánchez had his own awkward campaign video moment when on Wednesday he received an endorsement of sorts from José Manuel Villarejo. The former police commissioner is Spain’s poster child for official skulduggery (and surreptitious police surveillance) after covertly taping (and leaking) interviews with everyone from cabinet ministers to former King Juan Carlos I’s girlfriend. (He probably has a tape of you.)

Villarejo told a parliamentary committee investing illicit undercover ops and surveillance he participated in that “if I’m alive in December” (always a good start) he will vote for Sánchez because the PM is “the bravest presidente I’ve known” and an “idol”.

With friends like these…

🙏 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.