Madrid | Issue #162
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Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
Itâs Friday again!
And if youâre looking for a palate cleanser after last weekâs insipid F1 race, have we got options for you!
Yes, I understand your frustration. After all, paying âŹ3,000 just to see a couple of cars driving around for a few hours (and by âsee,â I mean sensing a colorful blur pass you by a few times for a fraction of a second) is probably not what you had in mind when you decided to spend a significant fraction of your monthly income on it.
Fear not, peasant! The Bubble is here with more suggestions so you can keep throwing away your money (although this time the experiences should hopefully be more fulfilling).
First of all, Shakira is in town for her
MadridEurope residency, and her first concert is today. Hurray! (If you have tickets). You also have multiple dance parties, plays, exhibits, and stuff that will leave you exhausted but happy (and poor). Come join us on our lofty quest for infinite hedonism as we bid adieu to the summer of 2026.
Happy weekend!
1. đ Madrid Fashion Week is back this weekend
You may have noticed an unusual concentration of extremely well-dressed people wandering around the city this week. Thatâs because this thing called Madrid Fashion Week is underway, with more than 60 designers, 45 runway shows, exhibitions, performances, and parties turning the city into Europeâs fashion capital through Saturday.
The main event is Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid (a mouthful), which runs through Sept. 19 and showcases the Spring/Summer 2026â27 collections. And this year, organizers are making a bigger effort to take Fashion Week beyond the traditional IFEMA runway.
But wait⊠Now you donât have to go to IFEMA to hang out with top models who barely acknowledge your existence or look at clothes youâll never wear, even if you had the money to buy them, because⊠fashion is coming downtown! Itâs all part of Madridâs Semana de la Moda, with shows and events spreading into unusual locations around the city.
Friday belongs to the big names. Universidad Nebrija hosts Maison Mesa, Custo Barcelona, Lola Casademunt by Maite and Yolancris throughout the day, before Alvarno takes over the GalerĂa de las Colecciones Reales at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday is for the new kids. The final day is devoted to EGO, MBFWMadridâs platform for emerging designers, with shows from Apolineo Studio, Biyeyemete, Cotes, Isabel Is My Name, Karla Aguilar and Miss Take at Universidad Nebrija.
And yes, Madrid would very much like to sit at the cool kidsâ table. The cityâs stated ambition is to strengthen its position alongside established fashion capitals like Paris, Milan, New York and London (who, like the top models do with you, also barely register Madridâs existence).
So put on something fabulous and pretend youâre supposed to be there. If Emily from Emily in Paris can (somewhat) pull it off, so can you.
đ What: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid + Other fashion stuff
đ Where: IFEMA Madrid (Avenida del Partenon 5, Madrid) + venues across the city
đ When: Through Sept. 19
đïž Tickets start at âŹ95 (belonging is not cheap, peasant)
2. đȘ Brava and JardĂn de las Delicias: Two great music festivals on the same weekend
Apparently Madrid has decided one major music festival a weekend isnât enough. So now have to pick between two. Both Brava Madrid and JardĂn de las Delicias take place Friday and Saturday, which means your choice essentially comes down to this: Are you team Vengaboys, or team Viva Suecia? Choose wisely.
đ Brava Madrid Festival: This oneâs for the gays and the gay-adjacent (i.e. allies). More than 50,000 people attended last year (it was sold out!), so the festival returns this weekend to Caja MĂĄgica with three areas devoted to hits, pop and electronic music, plus food trucks, fashion and a general commitment from the crowds to being fabulous.
This lineup is all over the place (and will definitely make you feel old because itâs mostly late 90s and early 00s). Youâve got live performances from the Sugababes (remember them?), Natalie Imbruglia (remember her?), Fangoria, Inna, Vengaboys (Boom, boom, boom, boom⊠I want you in my room!), Leire MartĂnez, MarĂa PelĂĄe and Soraya, plus an electronic stage featuring SofĂa Cristo and a bunch of DJs. Basically, if you want to drunkenly scream along to all these late 20th century international hits, youâll probably be fine.
đ JardĂn de las Delicias Festival: You always say you want to be immersed in the local culture, so hereâs your chance to ditch the international names and go very, very Spanish.
Over at the Complutense University campus, this festival is definitely going more local indie/pop-rock with Dani MartĂn, Viva Suecia (this song is⊠â€ïž), Sexy Zebras, Marlon, Marlena and Inazio.
Itâs also pretty massive. JardĂn sold out last year too, drawing more than 55,000 people, and mixes the concerts with visual shows, performances, food, and other activities designed to turn the university grounds into something considerably more exciting than a campus.
So there you have it: two days, two giant festivals, two completely different vibes. Both of them are amazing.
đ€ What: Brava Madrid Festival / JardĂn de las Delicias Festival
đ Where: Caja MĂĄgica / Cantarranas Campus, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
đ When: Sept. 18 & 19
đïž Tickets: Brava starts at âŹ40 / JardĂn de las Delicias starts at âŹ117.95
3. đž Hotel Tapa Tour: Go bar-hopping through Madridâs fanciest hotels
You know what? Screw Fashion Week. Thereâs nothing better than eating and drinking on a weekend. Also, if weâre gonna be judged by pretentious people who think they are better than us, why not do it at a fancy hotel instead? At least thereâs food there.
Welcome to the Hotel Tapa Tour, an event in which Madridâs luxury hotels remind you that youâre allowed inside even if you canât afford to sleep there. Back for its 11th edition, itâs turning some of the capitalâs fanciest hotels into stops on a very glamorous tapas crawl through Sept. 27.
The idea is to break down the barrier between luxury hotels and the rest of us. Participating hotels serve special tapas that anyone can drop in and try without a reservation, effectively turning high-end hotel cooking into what organizers call âinformal haute cuisine.â
There are four categories to hunt down: signature croquettes, traditional Spanish tapas, fusion creations, and (because this is a civilized society) dessert tapas, with optional drink pairings at each hotel.
And these arenât exactly your neighborhood pensiĂłn. Last yearâs lineup included the Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental Ritz, The Madrid EDITION, Rosewood Villa Magna, The Palace, JW Marriott, Gran Hotel InglĂ©s and BLESS, among more than 20 participating hotels.
Want to make an evening of it? Four hotels (Rosewood Villa Magna, JW Marriott, BarcelĂł Torre de Madrid and URSO Hotel & Spa) are also offering guided in-house experiences, where you explore the hotelâs different gastronomic spaces through a four-tapa tasting menu.
Basically, itâs your opportunity to enter those places without getting rejected at the door.
đŽ What: Hotel Tapa Tour Madrid
đ Where: Participating luxury hotels across Madrid
đ When: Sept. 17â27
đïž Tickets: No general admission or reservation required; tapas and pairings are purchased individually at participating hotels.
4. đž Fiebre Photobook: Judge a book by its cover
You know how reading books is no longer a thing? I know, right? Who reads anymore? But if for some weird reason you feel bad about not buying books, I have the perfect answer for you.
Fiebre Photobook Fest takes over La Casa Encendida this weekend, bringing together photographers, artists, publishers and some extremely pretty books for three days devoted entirely to the art of telling stories through photography.
This is photobook heaven. The centerpiece is a huge fair featuring more than 130 artists, collectives, publishers, bookstores and distributors from Spain and around the world, including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, France, China, the U.S. and the U.K.
Mexico gets the spotlight this year, with the festivalâs 13th edition paying particular attention to the countryâs diverse independent publishing scene and encouraging a more emotional, intuitive approach to photography and the physical book itself.
Thereâs plenty to do besides buying beautiful books youâll be afraid to
readtouch. The weekend also includes workshops, exhibitions and other activities aimed at everyone from curious newcomers to professional photographers and publishers.And apparently photobooks are having a moment. Fiebre has built an online catalog of more than 1,200 publications, while the festival itself has grown to its largest number of participants yet.
Come and buy a coffee table book thatâs not TASCHEN, please. You probably already have enough of those.
đž What: Fiebre Photobook Fest XIII
đ Where: La Casa Encendida, Ronda de Valencia, 2
đ When: Sept. 18â20
đïž Tickets: Free admission to the fair
5. đ€ L.E.V. Matadero 2026: Get weird with art and technology
If none of the previous options are your cup of tea, maybe youâre just weird. So I have the perfect event for you!
The L.E.V. Festival returns for its eighth Madrid edition this weekend, bringing together electronic music, digital art, robots, experimental cinema and extended reality for four days devoted to what happens when humans and technology get creatively tangled up (spoiler alert: the robots kill us all)
This isnât just an electronic music festival. L.E.V. combines live concerts, audiovisual performances, immersive installations, stage shows and XR experiences, with artists exploring everything from artificial intelligence to virtual worlds.
There are some pretty big names involved. The festival opened Thursday with the Spanish premiere of Last and First Men, a stage adaptation of JĂłhann JĂłhannssonâs experimental sci-fi film featuring Tilda Swintonâs voice, contemporary dance, 16mm film and JĂłhannssonâs rather haunting music.
Saturday gets particularly trippy. Italian duo Schnitt joins Japanese calligrapher Aoi Yamaguchi for Calligraton, turning traditional Japanese shodĆ calligraphy into a live audiovisual performance, while Swiss artist Milian Mori brings an electronic show filled with stroboscopic visuals.
Sunday ends with pianos and robots. New York composer Kelly Moran performs music from Donât Trust Mirrors, mixing prepared piano with synthesizers, before Japanese artist NAO closes things out with the Spanish premiere of THE CLUSTERs, combining dance, robotics, sound and real-time visuals.
Not a bad option for those of us who understand that the rise of the machines is now inevitable.
đ€ What: L.E.V. Matadero
đ Where: Matadero Madrid, Plaza de Legazpi, 8
đ When: Sept. 17â20
đïž Tickets: Check website
đș What to watch if you donât want to leave the couch this weekendâŠ
đș Movie: Wolfgang | 2025
đWhere to watch: HBO Max
âWhatâs it about: A struggling actor suddenly has to raise his estranged 10-year-old son, an autistic piano prodigy with an IQ of 150, after the boyâs mother dies.
đ€© Why you should watch: Because it takes a potentially common premise and handles it with considerably more intelligence and restraint than the typical family comedy. Director Javier Ruiz Caldera mixes humor with genuinely complicated subjects, including grief, depression, autism, parenthood, and insecurity, while classical music gives the story much of its emotional weight.
đŹ English Subtitles: Yes (movie is in Catalan)
đđ» Places to try this weekendâŠ
đ Florentine: La dolce vita lands on Serrano
Whatâs it about: Madrid has a new rooftop Italian restaurant, and this one comes with Salamanca views and a healthy dose of 1970s Italian glamour. Florentine has taken over the seventh floor of WOW Concept on Calle Serrano after opening its first Spanish location in Marbella.
Why you should go: Because the menu leans heavily into indulgent Italian crowd-pleasers: carbonara finished tableside, slow-fermented Neapolitan pizza and profiteroles covered in hot chocolate, alongside vitello tonnato, tuna tartare and a spicy nduja-and-stracciatella pizza.
Bottom line: At around âŹ50 per person, Florentine isn't cheap, but neither is pretending youâre spending the evening in 1970s Milan.
đ Address: Calle de Serrano 52, Madrid.
â Lhardy gets a sequel (yup, weâre splurging this week)
Whatâs it about: After 187 years in a single location, Madrid institution Lhardy has opened a second outpost on Calle de VelĂĄzquez, beneath the Wellington Hotel. Lhardy CafĂ© is a more casual, all-day version of the 1839 original, open from breakfast through late-night drinks.
Why you should go: The café mixes original Lhardy pieces with the atmosphere of an old-school European café, while bringing over classics including its consommé, croquettes and soufflé. The famous cocido, however, remains exclusive to the original.
Bottom line: A more relaxed way to experience one of Madridâs great culinary institutions without pretending something opened in 2026 has been there since 1839.
Address: Calle de VelĂĄzquez 8, Madrid
đšđ»âđ» Viral Videos of the Week
â«ïž Watch the moment Los Javis found out their movie La Bola Negra would be representing Spain at the Oscars
đš Cops kick out kids watching F1 race from bridge, then stay to watch the race themselves
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