Madrid | Issue #159
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🏝️ While the rest of The Bubble Newsletter’s team is out of office this month, this weekend guide will continue to reach your inbox every Friday.
Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid (and Surroundings!) This Weekend
It’s me again!
And I want you all to picture me right now, sitting in the sun, having a glass of Chardonnay in a vineyard outside Bordeaux, France, and… writing this newsletter. The AI-generated image doesn’t do justice to the real picture. That’s how much we love you here at The Bubble.
We're good people! Even though right now we’re all scattered around the globe trying to forget about the dumpster fire of a world we’re living in, we don’t ignore those we’ve left behind in the trenches, melting in the streets of Madrid like a half-eaten Frigopie that’s been discarded on one of the cement benches in the Puerta del Sol.
Stranded friends, we salute thee. And remind you that, in just four days, the new month kicks in and things return to normal. Coffee shops reopen, traffic increases to its natural level of madness, and political leaders ditch their aestivation status and reenter the city, ready to complain about whatever happened in the last month.
Oh, and your friends (including us) are also back, which is nice.
In the meantime… Happy weekend!
1. 🎉 San Sebastián de los Reyes is throwing a massive party, and you should stop complaining and just go
Contrary to popular belief, there is a world beyond Madrid’s M-30 beltway. Sure, in some areas there be dragons (you know which ones), but some others remain authentic, impervious to the unstoppable forces of gentrification. San Sebastián de los Reyes is… neither (it’s just aight).
But if you want to see what a proper Spanish town festival looks like when absolutely everyone commits to it, head north this weekend to attend the Fiestas del Santísimo Cristo de los Remedios, which sounds religious but it’s actually a fun verbena with some Catholic iconography thrown around to please the pious.
It’s one of the biggest celebrations in the Madrid region, and San Sebastián de los Reyes spends an entire week turning itself into a mix of religious festival, street party, concert series, bull-running spectacle and neighborhood reunion. There are processions, Mass in the morning, charangas and tapas by lunchtime, bull runs, DJs, orchestras and pop concerts by night.
The religious heart of the festivities is today, with a solemn Mass and the evening procession of the Santísimo Cristo de los Remedios through the old town, followed by fireworks.
But this is also a seriously big music weekend: Cali y El Dandee headline Friday night, Malú takes over the main stage on Saturday, and Siloé closes Sunday with another free concert at the Adolfo Conde amphitheater. As usual, all people you don’t know, but that’s OK; just go with the flow.
Expect the atmosphere to be much more traditional if you go during the day. There are encierros (the town’s famous running of the bulls) every morning at 11 a.m., along with brass bands, children’s versions of the runs (hopefully no gore!), food stalls, neighborhood peñas, foam parties and dancing.
Saturday is probably the strongest all-round day if you want the full experience: morning bull run, daytime parties, a bullfight in the evening and Malú performing free at 11 p.m.
Sunday keeps the momentum going with another bull run, a lunchtime Modestia Aparte concert, the traditional Baile de las Higueras (complete with figs, naturally) and Siloé at night.
Basically, it’s not like you have a lot of choices this weekend. Be thankful we sent you this newsletter today.
🎉 What: Fiestas del Santísimo Cristo de los Remedios
📍 Where: San Sebastián de los Reyes, with major events around Plaza de la Constitución and Anfiteatro Municipal Adolfo Conde
📅 When: Aug. 28-30 for this weekend’s main events
🎟 Tickets: Most concerts and street events are free until capacity is reached
2. 🎡 Alcalá de Henares is also throwing a party (in case you’re not into San Sebastián de los Reyes)
If San Sebastián de los Reyes is too mainstream for you, Alcalá de Henares (don’t try to recall, you’ve never been) is simultaneously celebrating its Ferias y Fiestas, and having a UNESCO-listed historic center as the backdrop.
Alcalá’s Semana Grande grew around the medieval celebration of San Bartolomé, and today it has evolved into nine days of festivities involving the entire city. The old traditions are still everywhere (peñas, charangas and the amazing/terrifying Gigantes y Cabezudos parade through the streets) but they’re now mixed with concerts, theater, dancing, food, fairground rides and roughly 300 different activities scattered around town.
This weekend is actually the grand finale, so it’s a particularly good time to go. Today, things get
weirdeclectic: there’s a competition to see who can spit an olive pit the farthest, another to crown Alcalá’s best croqueta, and a huge concert inside the old city walls featuring Fangoria, Chenoa, Nancys Rubias, Raúl, Coyote Dax and Zapato Veloz.Saturday is another full day, beginning with the traditional Gigantes y Cabezudos making their way through the city from 10 a.m. There’s also everything from a Catan tournament to a fascinating guided tour about medicine in Renaissance Alcalá, while Vanesa Martín performs that night at the spectacular Huerta del Obispo beside the medieval walls.
But you don’t really need an itinerary. The best way to experience the Ferias is probably to arrive in the historic center in the evening and wander. Plaza de Cervantes becomes one giant social hub, with food and drink stalls open until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday, while the Recinto Ferial beside the Henares has rides, bars and the tents of the local peñas running until 5 a.m.
In other words, you get a very Spanish town fiesta inside one of the prettiest historic cities near Madrid and it’s only about 40 minutes away by train (Cercanías).
🎡 What: Ferias y Fiestas de Alcalá de Henares 2026
📍 Where: Alcalá de Henares — mainly Plaza de Cervantes, the historic center, Recinto Ferial and Huerta del Obispo
📅 When: Aug. 28-30 for the final weekend
🎟️ Tickets: Most stuff is free. Check website.
3.🌅 The Weeknd brings the biggest R&B tour ever to Madrid
We usually try to avoid mainstream artists when they perform in Madrid because chances are you already know they are here. But right now it’s not like you have a lot of options. So why not go see The Weeknd?
The Canadian superstar brings his enormous After Hours Til Dawn Tour to the capital after more than 40 sold-out shows across North America. And “concert” somewhat undersells what you’re getting here: the tour has become the highest-grossing R&B tour of all time, built around huge stadium production and a setlist pulling from more than a decade of hits.
That means Blinding Lights, Starboy, Save Your Tears and songs from After Hours and Dawn FM, alongside material from his latest album, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
If you’ve somehow avoided The Weeknd for the past decade, this is essentially your opportunity to hear one of the defining pop catalogues of the 2010s and 2020s blasted through a stadium sound system with tens of thousands of other people.
Three nights also means you technically have three chances to get in. Whether your bank account agrees is a separate matter.
🎤 What: The Weeknd — After Hours Til Dawn Tour
📍 Where: Riyadh Air Metropolitano, Avenida de Luis Aragonés s/n, Madrid
📅 When: Aug. 28, 29 & 30
🎟️ Tickets: €177 (If you think that’s too expensive go on the internet and complain)
4. 👑 Party like it’s 1649 at Navalcarnero’s Golden Age market (yes… another town outside Madrid)
Are the options I’ve presented so far not good enough for you? Get ready, because I have one more out-of-town recommendation. Look… you were complaining about having to stay in the city, so here I am, doing everything in my power to get out. And I mean out out, not Pozuelo de Alarcón. It’s time for you to get to know the real pueblos outside of Madrid and this is your chance.
Navalcarnero, a town you’ve never heard of, is spending the weekend pretending the past 377 years never happened. From Friday through Sunday, the town celebrates its Real Mercado del Siglo de Oro, transforming its historic center into a recreation of 17th-century Spain. (They do it every year).
The festival commemorates a genuinely important episode in Navalcarnero’s history: King Felipe IV married Mariana of Austria here in 1649, with the royal wedding taking place at the town’s Casa de la Cadena. It was sort of like the Swift-Kelce wedding of the time, so it was a pretty big deal.
The streets around Plaza de Segovia fill with period characters, street theater, historical performances, old music, artisans demonstrating traditional crafts and stalls selling everything from ceramics and leather goods to cheeses, cured meats, bread, sweets and, yes, Pumpkin Spice Latte, because they may be period characters but they are also business people.
It’s essentially a medieval market with a slightly more historically sophisticated wardrobe (and iPhones). The whole historic center gets dressed up to recreate the atmosphere of Spain’s Golden Age, the incredibly wonderful cultural period that gave us
the colonization of the AmericasVelázquez, Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca.
Oh, and unlike most opportunities to attend a Spanish royal wedding, you don’t need to be invited.
👑 What: Real Mercado del Siglo de Oro
📍 Where: Historic center of Navalcarnero
📅 When: Aug. 28-30
🎟️ Tickets: Free admission
5. 🍬 Take a piece of art home with you at the Reina Sofía
The Reina Sofía is staging Madrid’s first major exhibition devoted to Félix González-Torres, the Cuban-born American artist whose deceptively simple installations turned love, loss, politics and identity into some of contemporary art’s most moving works. Basically what we all have been trying to do unsuncessfully since 2016.
There’s also a fascinating Madrid connection. González-Torres briefly lived here in 1971 after leaving Cuba as a child, returning almost 20 years later to exhibit his work. Among the pieces he presented was “Untitled” (Revenge), an installation made from a pile of blue sweets.
Of that return, he wrote: “I have come back to Madrid after almost twenty years: sweet revenge.” That phrase now gives this exhibition its title.
Expect an exhibition built around contradictions: personal and political, permanent and temporary, private and public, presence and absence. González-Torres often deliberately allowed his works to change over time, famously creating piles of sweets or stacks of paper that visitors could take away, gradually altering the artwork itself.
That participatory quality becomes particularly powerful given his biography. González-Torres was a queer artist working during the height of the AIDS crisis and the conservative political backlash of the 1980s and 1990s, and his work transformed intensely personal experiences into understated meditations on love, mortality and power.
It’s conceptual art, yes, but it’s time for you to stop complaining and start embracing the sort of art you don’t like.
🍬 What: Félix González-Torres: Sweet Revenge
📍 Where: Museo Reina Sofía, Calle de Santa Isabel 52, Madrid
📅 When: Through Oct. 12
🎟️ Tickets: €12
📺 What to watch if you still don’t want to leave the couch this weekend…
📺 Movie: The Devil Within (Caminando con el Diablo) | 2026
📍Where to watch: Prime Video
❓What’s it about: In 1980s rural Spain, French boy Philippe and his parents seek tranquility but encounter Miguel, a local whose son has vanished mysteriously, sending him into turmoil.
🤩 Why you should watch: Because it‘s a dark, brutal rural thriller about two parents pushed toward madness after their young son disappears without a trace. At just 84 minutes, it’s tense, visually striking, and unsettling enough to stay with you long after the credits roll.
💬 English Subtitles: Yes.
💃🏻 Places to try this weekend…
🇱🇧 Em Sherif: A Lebanese feast worth sharing
What’s it about: Em Sherif has finally arrived in Madrid, bringing sophisticated Lebanese cooking to Calle Alcalá with a menu made for sharing: cold and hot mezze followed by beautifully grilled meats, with standouts including the traditional hummus, fattet batenjen with eggplant and yogurt, marinated samkeh nayyeh, and exceptionally tender beef skewers.
Why you should go: Because with operations in multiple countries in Europe and the Middle East, it’s considered one of the best of the best. The ingredients and execution are excellent, the service is polished, and the whole experience is designed around ordering far too many small plates, passing them around the table and discovering what Lebanese cuisine can actually do.
Bottom line: One of Madrid’s most exciting recent openings built around the recipes of mother-and-daughter duo Mireille and Yasmina Hayek. It’s elegant Lebanese food and seriously good cooking in a prime location.
📍 Address: Calle de Alcalá, 54, Madrid
☕ Maanna: Where your coffee actually comes from matters
What’s it about: MAANNA is a specialty coffee and chocolate spot built around one obsession: origin. Everything is organic and traceable, from its rotating selection of single-origin coffees to its bean-to-bar chocolates, with an emphasis on sustainable farming.
Why you should go: Because this is coffee for people who want to taste (and understand) the difference. Its permanent Colombian coffee comes from AMUCC, a project created by Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and mestiza women farming small plots in Cauca, while other origins rotate seasonally.
Bottom line: Come for excellent coffee and chocolate; stay for a refreshingly nerdy lesson in why great flavor begins long before the beans reach Madrid.
Address: Calle de San Lucas 15, Madrid
👨🏻💻 Viral Memes of the Week
🦖 A new dinosaur is discovered - or something like it
🎾 Not a meme, really. It’s just that Carlos Alcaraz is back and he’s looking hot af. So here you go.
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