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Madrid enters La Paloma: four days of free concerts, chotis and festivities
Madrid enters the last of its great August open-air festivals this week. The Virgen de la Paloma festivities run from Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th, with free concerts, chotis, traditional competitions, family activities and the customary procession through La Latina’s streets.
Las Vistillas gardens and Plaza de la Paja will once again host a large part of the programme. Celtas Cortos, Miss Caffeina, DePol, Karavana, Los Refrescos and Modestia Aparte will appear on their stages, alongside Fernandisco, DJs, orchestras and groups devoted to traditional Madrid music.
On Thursday the 13th, the programme will open with a day mixing tradition and concerts. There will be traditional hot chocolate, a sack race, children’s workshops and a chotis contest before Celtas Cortos perform at 21:30 in Las Vistillas. The night will continue with DJ sets until one in the morning.
Friday will bring one of the most festive days, with a waiters’ race, a high-heels race, a children’s chulapo-costume contest and a street parade. At night, Las Vistillas will revive sounds from the 1980s with Los Refrescos, Modestia Aparte and Fernandisco, while Plaza de la Paja will combine music, pasodobles and dancing until two in the morning.
Saturday the 15th will be marked by events in honour of the Virgin of La Paloma. At 12:45 the floral offering will begin, followed by the solemn Mass and the traditional lowering of the Virgin’s image by Madrid Firefighters. The procession will leave the church at 19:30 and, later that night, DePol will perform at Las Vistillas.
Sunday will close the festivities with some of the programme’s most popular plans: traditional vermouth, drinking contests using a botijo and porrón, lemonade distribution and a water festival on Calatrava Street. Miss Caffeina will perform at 21:30 in Las Vistillas and Karavana will do the same at the same time in Plaza de la Paja.
La Paloma thus brings the verbenas that link San Cayetano, San Lorenzo and this final celebration in the Centro district throughout August to a close. For four days, La Latina will once again mix large concerts with shawls, barrel organs, chulapos and activities organised by neighbourhood associations and traders, maintaining one of Madrid’s most recognisable summer traditions.