🪫 The Tapa Weekend: June 2

Vegan tapas, a pretty large rock band and some modern opera. You're welcome.

Jun 02, 2023

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | June 2, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #10

🎉 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!

Sleeping all weekend is also an option. (Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash)

We know. It’s been a tough week.

Between the summer election ruining our holiday plans to the weird March weather hitting Spain these days, we’ve all been longing for the weekend, our final sanctuary that, if only for a few hours, allows us to disconnect and recharge (recharging while being disconnected doesn’t make a lot of sense but you know what we mean).

Since you need a break, here are five cool, non-political things to do this weekend.

1. Vegans Rejoice: Tapa Mundi Route is Back!

Tapa Mundi, the wildly popular vegan ruta (yes, another one), is back for its fourth edition—and this time it’s inspired by Africa. For two weeks only, this route offers you a gastronomic journey through the heart of the continent, featuring amazing dishes from Egypt, Ghana, Tanzania, Morocco, Senegal and more. Each tapa costs €4.50, or you can get a tapa plus a small bottle of beer for €5.50.

There are 13 participating restaurants and this year you can get a passport stamped at each one of them to enter a raffle for a vegan cooking course and a year’s supply of La Sagra beer. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal, does it? And remember, you don’t have to be vegan to enjoy this. You can try some romazava al sakay (see above), bobotie, Moroccan cake, yassa rice and chili lime muhogo. If you have no idea of what any of this means, then this is a great opportunity to find out!

Tapa Mundi Route. Multiple locations around Madrid. May 29 to June 11. Check their website to see a list of participating restaurants.

2. Théâtre National de la Danse’s Corps Extrêmes

Visiting from Paris, Corps extrêmes (French for “extreme bodies") combines practices such as tightrope walking, acrobatics, climbing, and dance. There’s also an enormous rock climbing wall that the artists interact with (check the video above), along with a video installation that “showcases magnificent landscapes upon which aerial choreographies unfold, seeking to reveal the experience of the participants as they attempt to escape gravity.”

This acrobatic show features stuntmen and extreme sports enthusiasts fascinated with the idea of flying and experiencing weightlessness, and it’s also pretty cool visually. Corps Extrêmes was created by French artist Rachid Ouramdane, director of Chaillot—Théâtre National de la Danse in Paris and one the most internationally acclaimed choreographers at the moment. One night only!

Corps Extrêmes. Teatros del Canal, Cea Bermúdez 1, Madrid. June 3, 8:30 pm. Tickets range from €12 to €23.

3. Rockin’1000: The Biggest Rock Band You Didn’t Know

If you love music, this is your binky. For one night only, here’s your chance to experience the largest rock band in history as Rockin’1000 lands in Madrid.

Rockin’1000 is a show (and also a band?) that brings together hundreds and hundreds of singers, guitarists, drummers, keyboardists, bassists and more all in one big, gigantic stage to play the most legendary songs of rock and roll in perfect harmony while you sing from the stands (watch the video above to understand what we mean). Their two-hour setlist includes classics such as Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, Coldplay’s Yellow and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody among others. Tickets are close to being sold out so you better hurry if you’d like to go. Enjoy.

Rockin’1000. Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano. Av. de Luis Aragonés, 4, Madrid. Saturday June 3, doors open at 7 pm. Tickets start at €18.40

4. The ‘Image Cities’ Photo Exhibit

In the mood for something more relaxed that involves photography and contemplation? "Image Cities" is a photographic project by Russian-American photographer Anastasia Samoylova, “revolving around the integration of photography and image in the urban environment”. In her artisanal exhibit, featuring nine difference cities, Samoylova has created a series of collages in which the human figure “is almost always absent, and if it does appear, it is at a minimal scale compared to the grandeur of buildings and advertising signs.”

Her images “express the ambivalences and contradictions of the current urban landscape: while cities seek to promote their individuality, their spaces advance towards a generic scenario where the specific configuration of each city loses its uniqueness in an anonymous architecture of steel and glass.” You can’t tell us it doesn’t sound intriguing. Oh, and the exhibit is also the winner of the first edition of the international KBr Photo Award, launched by the Mapfre Foundation in 2021.

Image Cities. Fundación Mapfre, Sala Recoletos. Paseo Recoletos 23, Madrid. June 1 to August 27. Check the exhibit’s website for opening hours. Tickets: €5

5. Frívolo y Chico

Frívolo y Chico will include the premiere of 'Un café en el Pulgatorio' by Enrique Viana in the first edition of this opera music festival, and the presentation in Madrid of 'Borderland (Maldita cabeza)' by Marta Eguilior and Igor Escudero, as well as the Recital de Opera y Zarzuela by Montserrat Martí Caballé (daughter of soprano superstar Montserrat Caballé) and Luis Santana.

Frívolo and Chico intends to be “a 21st century view on frivolous art and popular genres such as revue, Spanish folk songs, music-hall, and cabaret” but also on chamber opera and zarzuela. The stage of the Jardiel Poncela theater will host renowned figures of the so-called 'género chico' and 'género frívolo', as well as contemporary opera that’s hard to classify (see video above).

Sounds fun to us.

Ciclo Frívolo y Chico. Centro Cultural de la Villa, Sala Jardiel Poncela. Plaza Colón 4, Madrid. June 2 to June 18. Check website for schedule. Tickets start at €15.

👨🏻‍💻 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.

😴 Could we have a break from elections please?

Shockingly (!!), people were not thrilled about snap elections in the MIDDLE OF JULY when civilization decamps to places that don’t involve thinking or work. So in honor of that irritation, here are a few meme-lets.

🥸 Queen Letizia’s Visit to the Madrid Book Fair Surprisingly Doesn’t Go Unnoticed

Queen Letizia visited the Madrid Book fair alone (well, with her bodyguards) and wearing casual clothes. Royals, they are just like us (except for the bodyguards). Apparently due to a scheduling conflict she was not able to attend the opening ceremony of the Feria last week, so on Thursday she headed to the Retiro park to check the place out and buy some books.

Peasants, aka people, were surprised to see her hanging out with them and, as seen in the video above, approached her to ask for a photo (to which she happily obliged). El Mundo reported that “she tried to make her visit go unnoticed” but her decision to not wear a wig or at least sunglasses probably didn’t help.

If you’re wondering which books she book, don’t worry, here’s the list (for real):

Stories from the City of God by Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Divine Magnet: Herman Melville's Letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne by Herman Melville
Ensayos Literarios by H.P. Lovecraft (Respect!)
The Walk by Robert Walser
The Uses of Photography by Annie Ernaux

Unfortunately for all of us, no Paulo Coelho. Maybe next year.

🙏 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.