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Concerts, classic cars and free museums: this is Madrid this week
Madrid enters its most intense days of spring. Between 15 and 17 May, the streets change pace with free concerts, open-air festivities, cultural activities and thousands of people taking advantage of the start of good weather. San Isidro once again turns squares, parks and entire neighbourhoods into improvised stages where the city stays awake late.
La Pradera concentrates much of the festive atmosphere. Over the weekend, names such as Fangoria, La Bien Querida, Baiuca and Las Ketchup will appear there, alongside DJ sets and traditional Madrid-style performances that keep the city’s most distinctly Madrid tradition alive. The Premios Rock Villa de Madrid will also be held on Friday 16, while the programme bids farewell on Sunday 17 with concerts and nighttime fireworks.
Las Vistillas and Plaza Mayor expand the offer with street parades, traditional dances and concerts for very different audiences. On Saturday 16, the giants and big-head figures will parade through the historic centre, one of those moments that still manages to bring entire streets to a standstill and draw families and tourists onto the pavements.
That same Friday, Madrid adds another unusual plan: more than one hundred historic vehicles will parade between Castellana and Cibeles as part of an event organised by Universidad Politécnica. Before the route begins, the cars will be on display at Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, turning the area into a kind of open-air motor museum.
The cultural agenda gains even more weight with International Museum Day. Between 16 and 22 May, places such as Reina Sofía, Casa Museo Lope de Vega and CA2M will open free of charge and offer special visits, workshops and night-time activities. Alcalá de Henares also joins in with its Noche en Blanco, which will fill the historic centre with cultural offerings until midnight.
The heat is also beginning to change habits in the city. Municipal swimming pools open their season on Thursday 15 with free admission throughout the day. There are 25 venues across Madrid that once again become a refuge for people seeking to escape the first afternoons of high temperatures.
For those who prefer to slow down, the gardens of San Francisco, next to La Latina, remain one of the city centre’s best-kept secrets. May and June are the best months to walk through this space full of rose bushes and open views over the west of the city, away from the noise of the festivities and traffic.
Madrid is experiencing these days a very recognisable mix of popular tradition, open-air leisure and accessible culture. The city changes its energy, squares fill up and neighbourhoods recover something that happens only a few times a year: the feeling that everything is happening at once.