This weekend’s plans in Madrid are already looking ahead to autumn, the new season is here, with new gastronomic openings and many different experiences.
It is also a good time to visit the exhibitions that are premiering, get to know and enjoy Madrid’s palaces and take advantage of the free leisure that the city has to offer.
The biggest parade of the Columbus Day in Madrid
This Saturday, October 5, more than 1,000 people from 22 countries will celebrate the largest parade of the Hispanidad in Madrid, which will start at 18:30h from Plaza de España and will run along the Gran Vía. Among the groups, the floats of Mexico and the Mariachi “Sol de America” stand out . The event is free and is designed for all audiences, with representation from several countries and theater and circus performances.
📍Location: Madrid, Plaza de España to Gran Vía.
📅 Date: October 5, 2024, 18:30h
Peruvian Tapa Festival
Fifteen Peruvian restaurants in the capital are in the midst of celebrating a festival dedicated to Creole cuisine. Those who join the event can enjoy a beer, a pisco sour, a plate of ceviche and a typical appetizer from the Andean country for 12€. It is undoubtedly an ideal opportunity to discover the star tapas that are part of Peru’s cultural heritage. This is the last weekend to enjoy the activity, so it is advisable to book in advance at participating restaurants.
📅 Date: October 4 to 6, 2024
The free concerts of the Fiestas de la Hispanidad 2024.
From October 4 to 13, Madrid celebrates the Fiestas de la Hispanidad with a program that includes up to 98 free concerts by national and international artists. Among the highlights, Manuel Turizo, Sen Senra and Ralphie Choo will fill iconic stages such as Puerta de Alcalá or Plaza Mayor. In addition, the event with various art, gastronomy and dance activities. Cultural diversity is the heart of this edition, under the slogan “All accents fit in Madrid”.
📍 Location: Madrid, various stages
📅 Dates: October 4 to 13, 2024
Getaway to Segovia for the 550th anniversary of the Proclamation of Isabella the Catholic.
On December 13, 1474, Isabella entered the church of San Miguel de Segovia to be proclaimed Queen of Spain. To celebrate this anniversary, the city celebrates a series of activities that will last until December of this year.
This Friday the program will be officially presented with a video mapping show projected on the east façade of the Alcazar with images of Isabella the Catholic. In addition, during the weekend, there will be a medieval market, as well as different dance workshops of the period, themed walks, exhibitions… You can check the program here.
📍Location: Paseo de Alicia Alonso, s / n, (Rivas-Vaciamadrid)
Dates: all weekend
The Berlin Wall. A World Divided
What if a plan for this weekend would be to visit more than 20 original meters of the Berlin Wall without leaving Madrid?
The Berlin Wall. A Divided World is an exhibition that shows how life was lived, during the presence of this great dividing line, on both sides: the rhythms of life, the separated families and friends, the spy networks? all through more than 300 objects and witnesses.
📍 Location: Paseo de la Castellana, 214 (Castellana)
💸 Price : Tickets from 15,80€.
Travel like in the 40’s in a historic train.
Traveling as it was done in the 40s of the last century is possible, but only aboard the Tren de Felipe II, a railway jewel of the twentieth century that has resumed its circulation to El Escorial.
Its route crosses the Sierra de Guadarrama and, on the way, travelers can enjoy period entertainment. Upon arrival, depending on the ticket they have purchased, they will be able to enjoy visits to monuments and panoramic tours.
📍Location: departures from Príncipe Pío Train Station at 10:20 am.
🗓️ Dates: until December 14
Price: adults from 18€ and children from 12,60€.
Go back in time with the baroque fair in Valdemoro
For three days Valdemoro goes back in time with its baroque fair, occasion for which will deploy in its streets proposals for the whole family as puppets, storytelling and traveling theater. And among its highlights, very curious workshops such as the one illustrating baroque collections or those dedicated to goldsmithing, blacksmithing, tarot, pottery, wreaths of dried flowers …. There is something for everyone!
📍Location: Plaza de la Constitución and surroundings (Valdemoro)
🗓️ Dates: from October 4 to 6
The Aranjuez Hot Air Balloon Festival
One more year, Aranjuez will leave the image of a sky furrowed by balloons on the occasion of its Hot Air Balloon Festival. Those who wish may climb into one of the 12 participants, but there will also be free activities at ground level. This is the case of the Magic Night on Saturday at 20:30h, during which the balloons will be illuminated as if they were lanterns.
📍Location: Plaza de las Parejas (Aranjuez)
🗓️ Date: October 5 and 6
Pop up of Laconicum
The e-commerce with the most niche beauty brands and with an eye always on the national product will have a physical store only this weekend. This coming Friday and Saturday, from 11 am to 8 pm, its offices in Chamberí will serve as a meeting point for those who want to get to know Sofía Coppola’s lipsticks in collaboration with Augustinus Bader, touch the Korean cosmetics brand Hyeja for the first time or smell the tomato candle by Malin+Goetz.
📍Location: Calle Bravo Murillo, 36 (Río Rosas)
Exhibitions you can see this weekend in Madrid
31 women. An exhibition by Peggy Guggenheim
© The estate of Dorothéa Tanning, VEGAP, Madrid, 2024
Fundación Mapfre kicks off the season with two jewels. On the one hand, 31 Women. An exhibition by Peggy Guggenheim, an exhibition that was born in 1943, in the middle of World War II. In that year, the American patron of the arts decided to give a voice to those who had never been given one: women artists. Thus was born Exhibition by 31 Women, which occupied her own New York gallery, Art of This Century. There she gave space to women creators, to artists, at a time when women were invisible.
At Mapfre we will be able to see the works of Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Kay Sage? In addition, a series of musealized pieces to understand and enter into the context of the time (photographs, works of art, publications of the time).
📍 Location: Paseo de Recoletos, 23 (Chueca)
🗓️ Dates: until January 5
Weegee. Autopsy of the Spectacle
The iconic photographs of Arthur H. Fellig, A.K.A Weegee, changed the paradigm of journalism. The exhibition brings together some of the photographs that he published in different New York newspapers between 1935 and 1945 and that, with his peculiar style, transformed event photography into a visual spectacle. We will also find some of the photographs he captured of different Hollywood stars from a critical and satirical point of view towards stardom.
📍 Location: Paseo de Recoletos, 23 (Chueca)
🗓️ Dates: until January 5
Seventy great masters from the Pérez Simón collection.
A selection of the most remarkable private collection of our country (consisting of more than 4000 pieces of sculpture, drawing, manuscripts…). This CentroCentro exhibition is divided into three themes with artists from different periods, from Rubens to Eduard Munch, from Canaletto to Paul Cézanne or from Van Dyck to Rothko.
📍 Location: Plaza de Cibeles, 1 (Center)
🗓️ Dates: until January 12
Enjoy a concert by candlelight
Candlelight concerts have already illuminated many places in the city. Historical buildings like the Ateneo de Madrid or the Círculo de Bellas Artes, hotels like the Wellington or the Four Seasons or new additions like the Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Médicos or the Galería de las Colecciones Reales are some of its many scenarios.
This weekend, like almost all of them, these venues and many others are hosting Candlelight concerts for all tastes and ages. From tributes to classical composers to more current artists through tributes to the creepiest horror movies or series like the Bridgertons or Game of Thrones. A different show that will make your weekend shine even more.
📍Location: Various locations
💸 Price: From 11 €.
This article has been written by Isabel Nieto, Alberto del Castillo, Helena Menéndez, María F. Carballo and Elena Francés.