🍂 The Tapa Weekend: September 22

A street market, a Monet exhibit, a cool pop music festival and more!

Sep 22, 2023

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | September 22, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #22

🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Tapa: Weekend Edition! An English-language newsletter about what to do this weekend in Madrid (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!

Despite our great efforts to the contrary, autumn has unavoidably arrived. Long gone are our warm swimming pool weekends with friends and those endless streams of poorly-prepared Aperol Spritzs.

Welcome to the season of Uggs, Halloween decor and people saying “foliage” a lot.

Here are a few cool things for you to do this weekend.

Also, can you please gives us a like or a comment below? For every like from you, we get one more hour of sleep at night.

1. Open House Madrid 2023

Madrid offers the opportunity to legally invade some of the city’s most iconic architectural marvels once a year. After a long wait, the ninth edition of Open House Madrid is here, offering guided in-person tours through over 120 buildings and architecture studios that are normally closed to the general public.

Curious onlookers can explore the insides of legendary locations such as the Palacio de Maudes, the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain, the Iberia airlines hangar or even the Palacio de Cibeles. But do it quickly—it’s for a few days only.
The theme for this year’s international festival is “architecture with a soul” and aims “to enhance the interaction between professionals and citizens, creating a dialogue space where they can share their views on architecture, design, and functionality.”

This year’s program is “is more experiential and participatory than ever,” the event’s website says, “aiming to encourage professionals to firsthand understand the needs of citizens and for the citizens to engage and feel part of the city they reside in.” Make sure you register in order to attend! (Check their website below for more details.)

Open House Madrid 2023. Multiple locations around Madrid. Through Sept. 24. Some locations charge a €3 admission fee. Check the website for more information.

2. Cristina Cazorla’s Madrileña

Here’s you chance to experience Madrid in a different way. Flamenco dancer and choreographer Cristina Cazorla offers the audience a stroll through her city, its customs and its essence. “Madrileña is a tribute to the past and an expression of the present”—a representation of the city’s essence through dance and music.

There will be four artists on stage along with three live musicians and Cazorla, to take the audience through local traditional music such as the “chotis”, the “Pichi” and iconic moments in the city’s history, such as the “elegant Habsburg Madrid, the Goyaesque aesthetic and the fast-paced 21st century city”. And yes, there’s even an allusion to the 1980s “movida madrileña”.
Check the video above to see what we mean, but if you want to understand a bit more about this amazing city, don’t miss this one.

Madrileña. Teatro del Canal. Cea Bermúdez, 1, Madrid. Sept. 22, 7 pm. Tickets start at €20.

3. Brava Madrid Music Festival

The first edition of the Brava Madrid live music festival is here and if offers quite a lineup!

Over 30 pop and techno local and international artists such as Mika (seen above), Sugababes, Loreen (Eurovision winner!), Melanie C (from the Spice Girls! Remember them? Your children probably do), Natasha Bedingfield, and Belén Aguilera (no relation to Christina) will be landing in the city to participate in an event that is “designed to break gender norms through fantasy, music, and fashion”. We have no idea what that means, but sure.
But wait, there’s more! Singer, songwriter and producer Vicco (the one from Nochentera!), DJ Luc Loren and the influencer, comedian, and presenter Inés Hernand will also be there, along with Samantha Hudson, Fusa Nocta, Ladilla Rusa, La Prohibida and many more. (Seriously, this lineup is amazing.)

There will be food trucks and other fun spaces for you to hang out and find likeminded individuals who enjoy the same kind of music you do so why the hell not?

Brava Madrid Music Festival. IFEMA Madrid, Avenida del Partenon 5, Madrid. Sept. 22 & 23. Tickets start at €35.

4. Musee Marmottan’s Claude Monet Exhibit

If you’re looking for something that makes you look smart and cultured on Instagram, forget about the Brava Festival—this one is a lot better: the cultural space CentroCentro is hosting the first major exhibition in Madrid dedicated to the French painter Claude Monet, also known as the father of French Impressionism

With over 50 works on loan from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, this exhibit takes a journey through master impressionist’s artistic career, showcasing the works to which he was most attached.
The works being showcased in Madrid include some of his famous paintings, such as "Portrait of Michel Monet with a Pompom Hat" (1880), "The Train in the Snow. The Locomotive" (1875), or "London. The Parliament. Reflections on the Thames" (1905), alongside large-format paintings such as his captivating and famous "Water Lilies" (1917-1920) and his evanescent "Wisterias" (1919-1920).

All of these pieces come from the Musée Marmottan Monet, which houses the most significant collection of the artist's works, a result of a donation made by his son Michel in 1966. See? You can’t say we only recommend tapas to you.

Musee Marmottan Claude Monet Exhibit. Plaza de Cibeles 1, Madrid. Through Sept. 25, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets start at €16.

5. The Mercado de las Ranas is back

We’ve covered this one before but it’s worth writing about it again. The next edition of the Mercado de las Ranas (“Frogs Market” but don’t worry, there are no frogs involved) is being held tomorrow at the Barrio de las Letras.

Stores and sales people bring their merchandise out to the street showcasing and sharing their “commercial, tourist, cultural and gastronomic” options. So basically it’s kind of a open air street market where you can buy lots of stuff, eat and drink. Just look for Lope de Vega street near Plaza Santa Ana. Can you think of a better way to spend your Saturday?
There will also be “promos, discounts and special menus” (which is great) as the ultimate goal is to promote business in the Las Letras neighborhood while replicating the experience that you get when visiting other iconic markets such as Candem Town in London or the New York flea markets.

A total of 260 businesses are participating this time, so if you have nothing to do tomorrow morning, here’s a great option for you.

Mercado de las Ranas. Near Plaza Santa Ana, Madrid. Sept. 23, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Free admission.

👨🏻‍💻 Viral Story of the Week

🧑‍🍳 Saying the quiet part out loud, ‘Kids these days’ edition

elespanol2015

A post shared by @elespanol2015

The president of the Confederación de Hostelería de España (Spain’s hospitality industry lobby), José Luis Yzuel, has really had it up to here with kids these days.

After complaining about the “youths” whining about working 10-hour days and working in high season, he really got into his “we used to walk 2 hours to and from school every day, up hill both ways” vibe, saying…

“Young people don’t work. I won't even tell you about the working conditions. We are seeing it everywhere. [They complain about] working a split shift, on Saturday, Sunday, holidays...: ‘The hours, we’re working 10 hours! Damn! What a pain.’ Yes, all our lives in the hospitality industry, we’ve worked part-time, from 12 to 00. That has been our whole life.”

And folks got hot about that! Specifically, the whole 12-hour part-time day hit a nerve. Spain’s waiters found it indignante, they called for his resignation, to the point that Yzuel even apologized.

Be nice to your waiter. They don’t make once and they often work ridiculous split shifts. For a mix of waiter laughter and tears, Soy Camarero is a good place to start.

🔔 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.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?