August is the month when many people in Madrid take the opportunity to go on holiday. The ‘lucky ones’ who stay behind have a whole range of experiences to enjoy with fewer people around, no queues and no rush. Those who leave don’t know what they’re missing.
Festivities of San Cayetano, San Lorenzo and La Paloma
San Cayetano (2–8 August), in the Rastro/Embajadores area; San Lorenzo (9–11 August), in Lavapiés; and La Paloma (12–15 August), in La Latina. Known as ‘Madrid’s little festivals’, the city’s most traditional neighbourhood dresses up in the style of chulapos, majas and manolas… Free lemonade, chotis dancing, shows, a tortilla competition, the ‘frog game’, mus and many more activities where you can enjoy authentic Madrid. Here’s the full programme.
La Plaza en Verano at Matadero Madrid
On the warm weekend nights in August, Matadero Madrid invites you to concerts, performances, DJ sets, sound installations and plenty of dancing. This year, La Plaza en Verano coincides with Matadero Madrid’s 10th anniversary.
On Fridays, PLAYdramaturgia and Elgatoconmoscas have selected various projects to create VIVAC, which is simply about spending the night under the open sky. A decision that involves opening up the final space of the day to encounters with others, to contemplation and to listening to the night itself and its ways, to what we can do with it and its places, to its open-air nature. This programme invites us to connect with the sounds that permeate cities, the transformative power of the spaces the night embraces, and its relationship with storytelling, the hit song, the voice, the body and dance: the liminal space inherent in every party. Fancy coming along? Here’s more information.
Fescinal
Summer open-air cinemas
We’ve already told you about Madrid’s open-air cinemas, where, as well as enjoying film classics and new releases under the stars, you can also gaze up at Madrid’s sky – because we don’t know if you’re familiar with the saying ‘from Madrid to the sky’. August is the ideal time to go, and it’s the perfect moment for you to see for yourself.
