Amazing things to do in Madrid in April

One of the beautiful virtues of April is its light. The fourth month of the year arrives with the aftertaste of the summer time change. In Madrid, an hour later in the afternoon translates into eternal afternoons to enjoy the good weather.

After a cold but also flowery March, this month starts sunny and with a contagious discharge of gastronomic, artistic, musical, literary plans and, of course, unforgettable nights. These are the April plans to stay in Madrid.

Pixar World (all month)

More than half a million people have already passed through IFEMA’s 5.1 space to enter the scenes of their favorite movies. Pixar World is not a typical exhibition, but rather a journey through the images, scenarios and memories of Pixar films. One of the most photographed rooms is Andy’s room, from Toy Story; but also Carl’s house in UP or the scare factory in Monsters S.A. A trip to the best of animated cinema.

Space 5.1 of the IFEMA Madrid Fairgrounds. Avenida del Partenón, 5 (Barajas district).

💸 Tickets: from 18 €.

Relevo Festival (from April 6 to 28)

Relevo is the festival that comes to meet a fundamental need of a city: to promote, publicize, promote and support emerging and local talent. To make the most of what the city has to offer from the very heart of the city. Thus, from April 6 (and continuing on Sundays 14, 21 and 28) emerging artists will play at the Center for Contemporary Culture Condeduque. This is the case of Gus, Cometa, Vicente Calderón, Ashleys, Carrera Blanca or Nico B.

📍 Conde Duque Street, 11 (Conde Duque)

The Berlin Wall. A World Divided (all month)

More than 20 meters of the Berlin Wall are collected these days at the Canal Foundation. This is the most visible piece, the most magnanimous, of an exhibition of great depth (and dimensions) that narrates, remembers and analyzes how the Berlin Wall divided and determined the life of separated families, of a divided city. But beyond the wall, this exhibition brings together original testimonies as well as more than 300 pieces to compile a story that is still necessary.

📍 Canal Foundation (Canal)

💸 Tickets: from 16€.

The Art of Manga (from April 4th)

How capricious is time… A few days before the death of Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball, the arrival in Madrid of an unprecedented exhibition on the world of manga was announced. The Art of Manga “will pay tribute to pioneering and influential mangakas ” through 150 pieces and works of art (books, scrolls, manuscripts, sculptures, comics that are authentic rarities…) and an immersive component, with the installation of scenographies that will take us into the Japanese culture.

📍Calle de Hortaleza, 63 (Chueca)

Jurassic World by Brickman (all month)

Jurassic World by Brickman is what we could informally call a “creative madness”. Inside, more than 50 dinosaurs come to life with 6 million LEGO® pieces distributed in different rooms that evoke and reinterpret iconic scenes from Jurassic World. In addition, you will have the opportunity to build as many figures as you wish, leaving your personal mark in this incredible space.

Space 5.1 of the IFEMA Madrid Fairgrounds. Avenida del Partenón, 5 (Barajas district).

💸 Tickets: from 9,93 €.

Danzadero (from April 13 to 27)

The International Dance Day, which is celebrated on April 29, becomes a star event for several days in Matadero. Or rather, Danzadero. During these days, the cultural center will become a living entity by and for dance, with workshops, exhibitions, live music, competitions ….

Thus, in this context will be held the ninth edition of Cuerpo Romo, the festival of contemporary dance; also the Spanish edition of Red Bull BC One Spain, an event for breakers and with free admission (with download of invitations on the Red Bull website); also the Asaltos de Danza, that is, a dense program of dance companies from different disciplines; Solaz, a site-specific dance piece created for the open-air space of the Matadero site by the company Antonio Ruz; as well as a parallel program at the Cineteca (a Film and Dance cycle that will screen films such as The Red Shoes, Five Dances, Suspiria…).

📍Plaza de Legazpi, 8 (Arganzuela)

Dernière Minute ( from April 23 to 28)

The Green Room of the Canal Theaters is nourished with life and mysticism with the installation of Dernière Minute, an immersive piece by audiovisual artists Adrien M & Claire B (and music by Olivier Mellano) that analyzes the concept of a minute. What is a minute in life? What happens to that minute before crossing the threshold of death? Or that minute before being born?

This experience, lasting 30 minutes, analyzes this concept through metamorphosis, placing the spectator in the middle of change, of before and after: “to be a drop, a flame that burns, smoke that flies, ash that vanishes, air that escapes, rain that falls, a wave that rises”.

📍Cea Bermúdez Street, 1 (Chamberí)

Notre-Dame de Paris. The enlarged exhibition (from April 25).

Opening at the end of the month at CentroCentro, this exhibition examines the history of the Parisian temple from its origin to the 2019 fire. Designed as a technological exhibition, visitors will carry a tablet with which to scan the “21 doors of time” that will open, step by step, in an interactive journey. It arrives in Madrid after having passed through London, Paris, Washington DC … and inside, the viewer can visit through technology historical events such as the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte, the wedding of Henry IV or the construction of the famous spire that was destroyed during the fire.

Plaza de Cibeles, 1 (Center)

Autopia: the largest collection of special cars and motorcycles (April 20)

The most awaited event by car enthusiasts returns to Spain, AUTOPIA AUTOPIA, a unique exhibition with more than 900 unique pieces that cannot be seen anywhere else.

In addition to exhibiting pieces from different eras, including models from Pegaso, Hispano Suiza, Lamborghini, McLaren or Ferrari, the event (which is pet friendly) has food trucks and beverage bars by the lake and in the forest to complete the experience. Music completes the plan in the middle of the impressive Bosque del Santander in Boadilla del Monte.

📍 Bosque del Santander (Boadilla del Monte).

💸 From 25€..

European Craft Days (between April 2 and 7).

For five days, Madrid will organize 61 free activities in various locations of the Community. All in the context of the XII edition of this great event that celebrates craftsmanship, the work that comes from our hands, all that reality that does not move between screens. This year, Portugal will be the guest country. Among the different activities, trades such as jewelry, costume jewelry, textiles? throughout the capital, Leganés, Nuevo Baztán, San Fernando de Henares, Valdemorillo, Alcalá de Henares, Alcobendas, Alcorcón, San Lorenzo de El Escorial and Villarejo de Salvanés. You can consult the complete program here.

Different locations.

The Visible City / The City at stake (from April 14)

One of the new exhibitions at CentroCentro is to explore the city through the concept of video games. How? “It is possible today to understand the video game as a laboratory for the construction of citizenship and as a language of communication capable of establishing a dialogue at a distance between the actors that inhabit urban, material and virtual spaces”. The exhibition tries to make us see the potential of the video game to reflect but also to transform the city.

Plaza de Cibeles, 1 (Center)

Candlelight Spring

This April, Candlelight comes with novelties in its repertoire. This is the case of the flamenco special on April 12, in which melodies by Camarón, Lola Flores, Morente… will be played; the Candlelight Spring special, to welcome the new season with stages full of candles and flowers. It kicks off on April 5 with a tribute to the great figures of gospel (April 19), the tribute to La Oreja de Van Gogh on April 20. In addition, an interesting proposal will unite on the same stage the songs of Coldplay and Imagine Dragons (April 7 and 13).

Also, the great classics of this cycle of candlelight concerts: a tribute to Ludovico Einaudi at the Four Seasons Hotel, a tribute by Hans Zimmer at the Hotel Wellington, The Beatles special (all three on April 14) or Candlelight Premium: Tribute to Coldplay at the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid.

📍Various locations

Melting Galaxy Lab (April 12, 13 and 14)

Doing things with our hands, beyond typing, scrolling. Create from scratch and treasure the result, proud of having dedicated time to creation. Among the many creative workshops, of those arts & crafts that flood Madrid, now comes Melting Galaxy Lab, a space for creating cosmos-themed candles. In other words: lots of glitter, mysticism and colors from another planet.

📍Calle de Irún, 23 (Príncipe Pío)

Tickets: from 29 €.

Casa Decor (from April 11)

The 59th edition of Casa Decor, the great exhibition of interior design, design, trends and lifestyle, moves: this year, it moves to a building located at Calle Francisco Silvela, 82. This venue, the Palacio de La Trinidad, was commissioned in 1928 by Dr. Ángeles Gutiérrez Suárez in, an estate of splendorous 3,600 square meters with two buildings inside: a mansion and a pavilion for guests, all surrounded by beautiful gardens. Casa Decor will unfold through 53 spaces intervened by decorators and decorators “in a particularly enjoyable and dynamic tour”.

📍Calle Francisco Silvela 82 (Avenida de América)

CALLE Lavapiés 2024 (from April 8th)

CALLE, the Festival of Artistic Interventions in the Public Space of Lavapiés, is back. This 11th edition will return with its usual fusion of art and everyday life: life will go on in this neighborhood while dozens of artists intervene murals, shop windows and facades. CALLE will take place from April 8 and the artistic interventions will be from April 15 to 21.

📍Different streets (Lavapiés)

Madrid, muse of Letters ( from April 15)

Espacio Letras is an exhibition space where literature emerges as a meeting place. It “explores Madrid’s prominence in literature, as well as in the literary works associated with the city”. The first exhibition of the space is Madrid, muse of Letters. In it, the city is represented as six great books in which there is room for writers, writers, works… and the city as a great muse.

📍Calle de la Alameda, 15 (Las Letras district)

Visiting the most beautiful restaurants in Madrid

Architects and designers work in restaurants that after decades will be studied as a projection of a contemporary feeling, as a fashionable place among the people of the time or as future nostalgia dumps. Madrid, with thousands of restaurants (at least 50 of them must be tried before you die), has a vast gastronomic offer that is at least remarkable.

But as the experience is not only to live it but also to tell it through images, there are restaurants that fall in love for its beauty and justify the visit only as a space of visual or functional delight. And here is the list.

📍Various locations

The night of the books (April 19)

With nocturnality and without malice aforethought, La Noche de los Libros returns to Madrid for its new edition. The nocturnal appointment with books organized by the Community of Madrid will be held on April 19. And as a starter and thematic axis, a quote from Emmanuel Carrère: “I write to give shape to that kind of somewhat incomprehensible world, which is our world”.

📍Various locations

Dining in the Dark (April 11, 19 and 27)

In the dark the senses are heightened, flavors are enhanced, touch is heightened…. Dining in the Dark is a gastronomic experience in the dark. The process is simple: you will choose, with your reservation, what kind of menu you prefer (meat, fish, vegetarian) and when you arrive at the place, a blindfold will serve to close your eyes to the food and open the rest of your senses to pleasure.

📍Several locations

💸 Menu: 49€/comensal.

Zurich RunningLab (from April 10 to 14)

Spring gets the blood pumping, and runners take to the streets. That’s why from April 10 to
14 April, Zurich RunningLab will be set up at the Puente del Rey (Madrid Río), offering a unique space dedicated to runners.

Here, attendees will receive an initial analysis and a personalized training plan free of charge. In the same space, runners of all levels will have spaces to improve strength and flexibility, will be able to attend talks by renowned experts and group running sessions.

In addition, they will also have the opportunity to overcome challenges to win prizes such as technical clothing, sports equipment and bibs for all distances of the Zurich R’N’R Running Series Madrid. You can book your place here.

📍 Puente del Rey (Madrid Río)

Te prensé entre las hojas (all month)

What a nice initiative to give voice to new talents in the art world. This is what is happening with the exhibition Te prensé entre las hojas, curated by Emily Sun and Bernarda Antonia Nsi Ngua (winners of the 15th edition of the Se busca comisario project).

This exhibition explores the family codes of migrants, the everyday stories that weave the reality of migration, the search for identity, the construction of a community with pieces by new artists such as Sophia Wong, Sofia Perdomo, Gin Ro, Youssef Taki, Yun Ping, among others.

📍Avenida de América, 13 (Guindalera)

Guided tours of the Archaeological Park of the Valley of the Neanderthals (from April 1).

With spring comes the season of outdoor routes, to recognize the territory of Madrid, to leave the asphalt and seek the clean air. The Archaeological Park of the Valley of the Neanderthals reopens its guided tours (for only 1 or 2 €) from April 1 to answer the question: what was life like thousands of years ago in Pinilla del Valle?

📍Avenida de América, 13 (Guindalera)

Ian Cheng: Thousand Lives (all month)

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Matadero presents an audiovisual exhibition on the work of Ian Cheng who, through computers and Artificial Intelligence “has perfected his mastery of the art of simulation”. As an example, the cultural space in Arganzuela shows two of his pieces: Life after BOB: The Chalice Study and Thousand Lives. Both represent characters facing the changing and transforming reality of the digital world.

📍Plaza de Legazpi, 8 (Arganzuela)

The New Freak Show (from April 24)

Welcome to the freak show, welcome to the exhibition about Artificial Intelligence, algorithms, supercomputers, malware, waves and pollution. Now that’s scary, isn’t it? This digital art exhibition (distributed in different rooms of Teatros del Canal) asks, “Are these the monsters of an era that overtakes us?”. Through 20 installations the works of national and international artists are displayed with a biting tone, humor, but also poetry.

📍Cea Bermudez Street, 1 (Chamberí)

Theater and Human Rights Cycle (from April 18)

The Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa celebrates the second edition of this theatrical cycle in its Jardiel Poncela hall. A cycle that seeks, through theatrical representation, through art, to analyze the horror and violence that Ukraine has been suffering for two years. It does so with two shows: Protocolo del Quebranto and El largo camino.

In addition, two round tables will be held: the first, Contar con la guerra, moderated by Patricia Simón and attended by Maruja Torres, Nicolás Castellano and Ebbaba Hameida (April 19); the second, on April 27 and entitled Supervivientes de la guerra, moderated by Mario Vega and attended by Doctors without Borders, Ahmed Abbuzabaida of CEAR and Adela Omid.

📍Plaza de Colón, 4 (Salamanca district).

Goya, the Awakening of Consciousness (all month)

Madrid exhibits, for the first time in history, all the copper plates that Goya used to print his engravings(Caprichos, Desastres de la Guerra and Disparates), plates that have been recently restored. This exhibition, organized in four sections, also shows paintings, prints and engravings that summarize the evolution of both the artist’s art and his life.

📍Calle de Alcalá, 13 (Sol)

Fabrik Nights (various dates)

Wawawiwa. What’s coming to Fabrik this April is unprecedented. For starters, The Masquerade returns, the great Claptone party on April 6. And it continues with the brutal Amelie Lens on April 13 with the Code 158 party.

📍Avenida de la Industria, 82 (Humanes de Madrid)

💸 Tickets: from 20 €.

Madrid’s markets bloom in April (different dates throughout the month).

This spring, the street markets are waiting for us. Starting with the Mercado de Motores (April 13 and 14), a classic among railway machinery and second-hand objects, ceramics, creative designs… and with that wonderful patio to enjoy some fun snacks in the sun. Another of the city’s icons, the Mercadillo del Gato, will be held at The Westin Palace from April 11 to 14, to bring the best vintage to the historic hotel.

In addition, there will be other gastronomic events such as the Planetario Municipal Producers Market ( first and third Sunday of the month) or urban ones such as [The Festival] by SALESAS, which on April 1 will bring the stores to Campoamor, Santa Teresa and Argensola streets.

📍 Various locations

A visit to the Royal Palace (whenever you want).

It’s always a good idea to stroll around the surroundings of the Royal Palace. Visualize it: you get to Ópera, you go around the large theater building, you get to Plaza de Oriente with the Renaissance facade of the Royal Palace, the obligatory stroll through the Sabatini Gardens, a visit to the Royal Collections Gallery? A guided tour of the impressive interior of the Royal Palace.

📍 Calle de Bailén (Palace)

The most beautiful little museum in the world (from April 26).

An exhibition brings the history of the “smallest museum in the world” to the fore. It is the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, located in the vertiginous Casas Colgadas in Cuenca.

Created in 1966, it was born from the mind of Fernando Zóbel, who loved abstract art and created for it a “space of freedom independent of the political regime that reaffirmed a whole generation of painters and sculptors”. Now, this exhibition of the Juan March Foundation (owner of the museum since 1981) pays tribute to him with this peculiar retrospective.

📍Calle de Castelló, 77 (Salamanca neighborhood)

Murder Mystery (April 6, 13 and 27)

A crime has been committed in one of Madrid’s most beautiful palaces. Murder Mystery, an immersive, full-scale mystery game, will challenge participants (who assume the role of investigators for a day) to the max, with deceptive clues and contradictory testimonies from suspects.

📍 Calle de Santa Isabel, 44 (Barrio de las Letras).

💸 Tickets: 23€.

The Will to Believe ( from April 13 to April 26).

Las Naves de Matadero will be the stage for La voluntad de creer, the Max Award 2023 for best theater show. La voluntad de creer is many things: it is inspired by a phrase that Joan of Arc expressed during the trial that would lead to her death; also, in the climactic scene of the film Ordet. And these underlying reflections (death and resurrection, faith and will) are expressed through a family of Basque brothers. The youngest of them will say, maintain and believe that he is Jesus of Nazareth while his sister maintains that he has gone mad from reading Kierkegaard’s reflections.

📍 Paseo de la Chopera, 14 (Arganzuela)

Krunch Festival (from April 18 to 21)

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Krunch is a gathering of artists, artisans, small publishers, fanzines… an ode to Do It Yourself, to the subversive, to what always beats beneath the visible culture of the city. This edition of Krunch is full of talks, interviews, round tables, signings with authors and a host of activities and workshops for the little ones. Oh, there will also be a concert (Saturday 20 at 13.00): from the Netherlands come The Mocks to liven up a Saturday as the Who or The Kinks would do in this walk in front of the Cuadernillos Shopping Center.

📍 Alcalá de Henares.

Night at the Museums (Saturday nights)

This is an after: both the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Prado Museum start April with different night visits. In the case of the Thyssen, it will be every Saturday from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm and with this untimely opening of doors will also allow access to temporary exhibitions.

On the other hand, “El Prado by night” will be held on the first Saturday of each month free of charge from 8.30 pm to 11.30 pm. On April 1, the first floor of the Villanueva building will be open. That is to say, whoever wishes can see, at night, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch, The Descent from the Cross by Van der Weyden, The Third of May by Goya or Isabella the Catholic dictating her will by Rosales.

📍Paseo del Prado, 8 (Barrio de las Letras); Calle Ruiz de Alarcón, 23 (Jerónimos).

Mercado de las Conchas (April 6 and 7)

Boadilla del Monte celebrates a new edition of the Mercado de las Conchas this April 6 and 7. It will be in the restaurant La Montefiore, where the work of multiple artisans, creators and designers from all fields will meet: gourmet products, decoration, jewelry, books, children’s fashion…

📍La Montefiore Restaurant. Montepríncipe Shopping Center (Boadilla del Monte)