🐑 What's on in Madrid: October 17
Fiesta de la Transhumancia, Tapapiés, Suma Flamenca and a lot more!
Madrid | Issue #118
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Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
It’s Friday again!
This weekend, Madrid is bursting with energy. Thousands of sheep will once again take over Cibeles for the Fiesta de la Trashumancia, while Tapapiés 2025 turns Lavapiés into a celebration of food, music, and diversity.
And if your plan is simply to eat well, don’t miss the crispy fries at Malditas Fritas or the cozy brunch at Adorado Bar, two perfect stops for a weekend that’s all about enjoying Madrid.
Happy weekend. 😎
🚨 PS: We want to take a moment to remember beloved actor and friend of The Bubble Jimmy Shaw, who tragically passed away last Saturday in Lisbon after a long fight with cancer. If you don’t know his name, Jimmy is an American actor who lived in Spain for decades and starred in many great Spanish TV series, including El Ministerio del Tiempo, which taught one of us (that would be Ian) basically all he knows about Spanish history. Today, Jimmy’s husband, Frisco, is facing overwhelming hospital and funeral expenses as he brings Jimmy home to Madrid. If you can help, please contribute to the GoFundMe campaign his friends have set up to support him during this incredibly difficult time. You can donate here. 🙏
1.🐑 Trashumancia 2025: This weekend, Madrid belongs to the sheep
Trashumancia may sound like something the billionaire tech bros are promoting in order to live forever, but in fact it’s a quite different thing. Never heard of it? Get ready.
Every October, Madrid’s traffic gives way to wool — and thousands of sheep take over the city’s streets in one of the capital’s fluffiest (and most chaotic) traditions.
The Fiesta de la Trashumancia, now in its 32nd edition, fills the heart of the city with bells, shepherds, and the occasional confused tourist wondering why the Gran Vía looks like a scene from Jumanji.
The event celebrates Spain’s centuries-old practice of transhumance — the seasonal migration of livestock — and highlights its environmental importance as a sustainable form of agriculture that helps preserve biodiversity and combat climate change.
Started in 1994, the celebration also serves as a living reminder of the historic Cañadas Reales, the ancient drovers’ roads that cross the Iberian Peninsula and are now protected as part of Spain’s public heritage.
HundredsThousands of sheep will march from Casa de Campo through central Madrid, parading past landmarks like Puerta del Sol and Plaza de Cibeles before stopping at the City Hall, where shepherds will symbolically pay the traditional “maravedíes” — a medieval toll for crossing the city — to local officials.
Expect folk music, traditional costumes, and plenty of photo ops before the flocks make their way back to Casa de Campo around 2:00 p.m.
It’s one of Madrid’s most charmingly surreal events — part protest, part pastoral pageant, and definitely a must.
🖥️ What: Fiesta de la Trashumancia 2025
📍 Where: From Casa de Campo to Plaza de Cibeles and back, Madrid
📅 When: Oct. 19, 10:30 am
🎟 Tickets: Free admission
2. 🍢 Tapapiés 2025: Music and tapas in Lavapiés
Madrid’s most multicultural neighborhood is once again throwing the city’s biggest culinary block party. This week, the streets of Lavapiés come alive with the 15th edition of Tapapiés, the iconic tapas and music festival that turns every corner into a mini world tour of flavors.
More than 100 bars and restaurants are taking part this year, each serving a creative tapa paired with a bottle or small draft of El Águila beer for just €3.50.
The festival celebrates the neighborhood’s diversity — from Indian curries to Argentine empanadas, Senegalese stews, vegan fusions, and avant-garde Spanish bites — all enjoyed while listening to live music echoing through the plazas of Lavapiés, Nelson Mandela, and Arturo Barea, as well as along Argumosa and Miguel Servet streets.
Over two weekends, the festival will host 30 free outdoor performances, blending Irish folk, Brazilian bossa nova, Argentine tango, hot French jazz, and American blues rock — a soundtrack as eclectic as Lavapiés itself.
Tapapiés hands out some serious awards too: a €2,000 top prize for the best tapa and a public vote worth €300 in local shopping vouchers. (The grand finale takes place October 27 at the Mercado de San Fernando, when the winning chefs will be crowned).
🖥️ What: Tapapiés 2025
📍 Where: Lavapiés (Plazas de Lavapiés, Nelson Mandela, Arturo Barea)
📅 When: Oct. 16-26.
🎟 Tickets: Free admission
3.💃🏻 Suma Flamenca turns 20: Madrid’s great festival of tradition and vanguard
Madrid turns up the heat this October with the 20th edition of Suma Flamenca, the region’s most important flamenco festival — and one of the top showcases of the art form in the world.
This three-week event fills Teatros del Canal and venues across the region with 46 performances, including 19 world premieres and 16 Madrid debuts, under the theme “Tradición & Vanguardia.”
Suma Flamenca has spent two decades bridging the old and the new — honoring flamenco’s deep roots while giving space to innovation and young talent.
This year’s lineup gathers some of the genre’s biggest names, including Olga Pericet, Manuel Liñán, Rafaela Carrasco, José Maya, Paloma Fantova, and Karime Amaya, alongside rising stars of cante, guitar, and dance.
On the vocal side, audiences can look forward to performances by Mayte Martín, José Mercé, Arcángel, Ángeles Toledano, Guadiana, María Toledo, and Esperanza Fernández, among many others.
Teatros del Canal remains the festival’s main stage, but Suma Flamenca also expands into other corners of Madrid — from El Ateneo and Teatro de la Abadía to Vallecas’ cultural centers and even historic venues like El Paular Monastery in Rascafría and the Real Coliseo Carlos III in San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
🖥️ What: Suma Flamenca 2025
📍 Where: Teatros del Canal & other venues across Madrid
📅 When: Oct. 14 to Nov. 2. Check website for schedule.
🎟 Tickets: Check website
4.🏛️ Madrid Otra Mirada 2025 (MOM): The City Opens Its Doors
More cool stuff! Madrid invites residents and visitors alike to see the city from a new perspective with the return of Madrid Otra Mirada (MOM) — the annual festival that turns the capital into an open-air museum.
Now in its 13th edition, MOM celebrates the 25th anniversary of the European Landscape Convention by highlighting the beauty and diversity of Madrid’s urban and natural heritage.
Over four days, nearly 200 historic landmarks — from palaces and monasteries to theaters, gardens, and even cemeteries — will open their doors to the public, many of them offering special access for the first time.
This year features 230 activities, coordinated by Madrid’s Department of Cultural Heritage and Urban Landscape, in collaboration with dozens of public and private institutions.
Among the new spaces joining in 2025 are the Palacio Real de El Pardo, Teatro de la Comedia, Gran Teatro Pavón, Fundación Telefónica, Monasterio de la Encarnación, Colegiata de San Isidro, and even the Observatorio Astronómico at the Complutense University.
Expect guided and dramatized tours, concerts, workshops, exhibitions, and children’s activities, all completely free of charge.
The theme of this edition — the relationship between landscape, culture, and well-being — ties together centuries of art, architecture, and environment into one immersive celebration of what makes Madrid unique.
🖥️ What: Madrid Otra Mirada MOM 2025
📍 Where: Multiple locations around Madrid
📅 When: Oct. 16 to 19. Check website for opening hours
🎟 Tickets: Free admission, but you need to register
5.🎭 Theater as a Mirror: Eduardo Vasco’s New Play Challenges Reality
The Teatro Español hosts a powerful new production directed by acclaimed filmmaker Eduardo Vasco — a meditation on how fragile our sense of reality really is, and how theater remains one of the last spaces for true freedom of thought.
Written by Ignacio García May and starring two of Spain’s finest actors, Juan Echanove and Joaquín Climent, the play unfolds as an intimate conversation between two men, Pierre and Cecil, trapped somewhere between the real and the imagined.
What begins as a simple wait for an author who never arrives slowly turns into a philosophical labyrinth — a game of mirrors about time, identity, and the very act of representation.
Rather than offering clear answers, Vasco’s staging invites audiences to sit with uncertainty — to question what’s true, what’s performance, and what’s left when both dissolve.
The dialogue is sharp yet human, profound without pretension, and often surprisingly funny. It’s a play that doesn’t just ask you to watch — it asks you to think.
🖥️ What: Esencia
📍 Where: Teatro Español, Calle del Príncipe 25, Madrid
📅 When: Through Nov. 9, Tuesdays to Sundays, 7 p.m.
🎟 Tickets: From €6
📺 What to watch if you’re staying in this weekend…
🖥️ What: El Centro (The Center) | TV Series | 2025
📍Where to watch: Movistar+
❓What’s it about: “El Centro” is a gripping espionage thriller set in modern-day Spain, echoing the shadowy tensions of the Cold War. When a brutal murder exposes an international Russian intelligence operation, the agents of Spain’s Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (the CNI, Spain’s CIA) are thrust into a desperate race against time, not only to stop the plot but to unmask a traitor within their own ranks.
🤩 Why you should watch: Because it’s the kind of espionage thriller Spain has been missing: sharp, stylish, and grounded in real-world geopolitics. The show combines high-stakes action and psychological tension with an unusually intimate look at the human cost of life inside the intelligence services. Think “Homeland” meets “The Bureau”.
💬 English Subtitles: No. But Spanish subtitles are available.
🤤 Something to try this weekend…
🍟 Malditas Fritas: A new temple to the humble French fry
What’s it about: Malditas Fritas is a trendy new spot in Madrid’s Plaza del Dos de Mayo that gives the humble French fry center stage. Rather than being a side dish, here fries are the hero: crispy, customizable, and served in generous trays with flavorful toppings and sauces.
Why you should go: Because it’s fun and bold. You get to build your own fry experience, picking from toppings like goat cheese, jalapeños, caramelized onions, or furikake. And the price point is reasonable! It’s also social media–worthy (looks great on Instagram!)
Bottom line: Malditas Fritas is a must for fry lovers and food explorers alike. Visit them now.
📍 Address: Plaza del Dos de Mayo 7, Malasaña, Madrid
☕️ Adorado Bar: Buenos Aires brunch vibes in the heart of Lavapiés
What’s it about: Adorado Bar is a cozy Lavapiés café that brings a touch of Buenos Aires to Madrid. It’s best known for its hearty brunches, relaxed vibe, and a sun-lit terrace that makes you forget you’re in the city.
Why you should go: If you’re craving a lazy morning or mid-afternoon treat, Adorado nails it. The portions are generous, the food feels homemade (not overpriced café gimmicks), and the space is warm and unpretentious, ideal for lingering over coffee or digging into a comfort brunch.
Bottom line: Adorado Bar is one of those hidden Madrid gems where brunch feels like something you deserve, not something you endure. Great food, chill atmosphere, solid value, perfect for a slow weekend in Lavapiés.
📍 Address: Calle del Mesón de Paredes, 22, Madrid
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For some reason I thought the Transhumance Festival was cancelled this year due to sheep disease, but turns out that was last year. Here's some more information for your readers who might be interested in checking out the festival: https://kimberleysilverthorne.substack.com/p/transhumance-festival-of-madrid
Thank you for adding more great info for our readers!