Madrid Magazine:
guides and local tips.

Madrid starts the weekend with new plans: The Island of Neverland, which opened on Thursday, a museum extension that opens its doors and a free exhibition on how modern art reached Spain. On Saturday, owners and their dogs line up for the Perrotón charity run at the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela. Add JAZZMADRID, Seba Calfuqueo at the Thyssen, the last weekend of the Iberdrola immersive experience and a run of free exhibitions, and these are the things to do in Madrid this weekend, October 16–18.

This weekend in Madrid comes with a bonus day: 12 October is a public holiday for Hispanidad, so the long weekend runs from Friday 9 to Monday 12. On Madrid Río, the smell of grilled corn and mezcal drifts along the Manzanares as the Agave y Maíz Mexican food festival takes over the riverbank. At Plaza de España, Aterciopelados, Sebastián Yatra, Marta Sánchez and Carlos Baute play free concerts, and Casa de México builds a Día de Muertos altar for composer Agustín Lara. Add Kenny Scharf at the Thyssen, Shakira's final two Madrid dates, Wicked's last season and the closing days of Felix Gonzalez-Torres at the Reina Sofía, and the city has a full programme from Friday to Monday.

Sunday in Madrid starts on a hill in La Latina. El Rastro, the city's open-air flea market, fills the streets below Plaza de Cascorro every Sunday and public holiday from 09:00 to 15:00, free to wander, with a different trade on every side street: paintings, second-hand books, film cameras, decorations, souvenirs, clothing, old furniture. The vermouth comes afterwards.

There's plenty on in Madrid this weekend. Shakira plays another round of dates on her European tour residency, Casa de Campo's glass pavilion fills with craft beer for Beermad, and cosplayers take over the Metropolitano for Japan Weekend. Plaza de Colón hosts a design and art fair with pink shipping containers, two of the city's free exhibitions reach their final weekend, and Las Rozas kicks off its autumn fiesta just outside the centre.

Three of Madrid's biggest events land on the same weekend by coincidence rather than design: Shakira in a stadium built only for her, Fashion Week's closing shows, and a big-budget musical opening night. That kind of overlap doesn't happen often, and it's why this weekend has more competing for attention than most. Beyond the headline acts, there's also a floating lantern festival on the lake at Parque Juan Carlos I, a Tim Flach photography trail through the Retiro, and an Annie Leibovitz archive from the 1986 World Cup in its final days.

Madrid hosts its first Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend, the biggest event on the city's calendar in decades. Beyond the race itself, expect a free fan zone in Callao, two brand-new immersive experiences opening their doors, a citywide gallery weekend, and The Black Keys' only Spanish show of the year.

September opens with one of Madrid's bigger outdoor line-ups of the summer, as the Coca-Cola Music Experience takes over Iberdrola Music for two nights and the world's best padel players close out Movistar Arena's Premier Padel P1. Away from the crowds, two new free exhibitions have just opened, a fashion retrospective for Ana Locking and a photography show on movement through occupied Palestine, alongside a run of history and design shows carried over from August. Sunday morning brings a one-off producers' market to Arganzuela to round the weekend off.

Late August brings a genuine deadline to this weekend's list. Richard Avedon's American West portraits, Talia Chetrit's Bunny and the Immortal Triad's immersive take on El Greco, Velázquez and Goya all close within days of each other, and the Museum of Romanticism's free August entry runs out with the month. Alongside the closures there's a one-off courtroom drama at Palacio de la Prensa, a final weekend for the VR pyramids of Horizon of Cheops, and a run of free, air-conditioned museums for the hottest hours of the day.