✝️ What's on in Madrid, XL Edition: June 5

Madrid | Issue #148

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Here Are 6 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend

It’s Friday again!

There’s no easy way of saying this; this weekend is gonna be a mess. Pope Leo XIV is in town for a series of religious events. And so is Bad Bunny (although not for religious events).

• Millions of people from all over Spain and Europe are expected to descend on downtown Madrid this weekend, so traffic will be a nightmare, there will be massive crowds everywhere, and long lines for literally everything.

• If you live outside the M-30, chances are your life will be a little easier. But if you live in Centro/Justicia/Chamberí/Salamanca, don’t leave the house. If you do because you need the blessing of the Holy Spirit or want to dwerk/twerk sluttily with Benito, bring some lorazepam. You will need it.

• El País has been kind enough to put together a guide with streets to avoid this weekend. Traffic will be shut down. Multiple metro stations in downtown Madrid will be closed, so plan ahead.

• Oh, and if you’re not interested in religions like catholicism or reggaeton, we have a few other options for you heathens.

Happy weekend!

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1.🇻🇦 Put on your Sunday clothes, people! Pope Leo XIV is in Madrid this weekend with a busy agenda

Holy mackerel! Pope Leo XIV is landing in Spain for his Lift Your Eyes tour, and he’s ready to paint the town red yellow, and white. Madrid is his first stop, marking the first papal visit to the city in 15 years. As we mentioned above, expect big crowds, food stands, and security everywhere. Consider this Catholic Coachella. Let’s go over his very busy agenda!

• Saturday, June 6: The pope lands at Barajas airport to a full-on state welcome with King Felipe VI, followed by a formal reception at the Royal Palace with politicians, diplomats, and half the Spanish establishment. Before you ask, no, peasant, you cannot attend.

• 6 p.m.: That afternoon, he’ll visit a Cáritas center supporting homeless people (yes, he’s putting social issues front and center from day one) before things take a more unexpected turn with a Niña Pastori performance. You also cannot join.

• 8:30 p.m.: Then comes the first big crowd moment (which maybe you can attend if you push some children out of the way): the pope cruising down Castellana in the Popemobile before a massive youth vigil near the Bernabéu Stadium. Thousands are expected, with live music (Hakuna, Siloé, Besmaya), prayers, and a late-night Eucharistic adoration. If you’re a youth, then you can probably attend, but you need to register here immediately. (If you’re asking if you qualify as a youth, you’re probably not a youth).

• Sunday, June 7, 10 a.m.: The main event! Cibeles transforms into the epicenter of Catholic Spain, hosting a huge open-air Mass for Corpus Christi, followed by a procession through nearby streets. Expect your news and Instagram feed to be bombarded with stories from this event, featuring the same people who the night before were probably slutting around at Bad Bunny’s concert. (Hey, no judgement here, as both things are not mutually exclusive and this is a sex positive safe space.) Warning: you also need to register for this!

• 6 p.m.: Later that day, the Pope heads indoors to the Movistar Arena for Tejer Redes, a more curated event bringing together figures from culture, art, and business to talk about… well, networking, we guess.

• Monday, June 8, 10:30 a.m.: Monday shifts gears again, this time into full political and institutional mode. In the morning, the pope meets Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, delivers a historic address to Parliament (a first in Spain; you can watch it on TV), and sits down with Spanish bishops. Unless you are Pedro Sánchez (or a bishop), you can’t attend.

• 6 p.m.: In the evening, things swing back to spectacle with a prayer at Almudena Cathedral.

• 7 p.m.: It’s gonna be a short prayer, because one hour later he will be at a massive event at the Bernabéu featuring a 1,000-person choir, dancers, and guest artists like David Bustamante. That’s right, the freaking pope. At the Bernabéu. With a choir and choreography. Epic.

• Tuesday, June 9, 10:20 a.m.: Pope Leo bids adieu to Madrid with a final event at IFEMA with volunteers before heading off to Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Not a volunteer? Not invited.

But wait, there’s more! Because Madrid is pulling a cultural all-nighter. On the night of June 6, 15 museums across the city will open late and for free for the “Yellow and White Night”. Because a papal visit is the perfect excuse for a spontaneous 2 a.m. museum crawl.

🖥️ What: Visit of Pope Leo XIV to Madrid

📍 Where: Multiple locations (Cibeles, Bernabéu, Almudena, IFEMA, Movistar Arena)

📅 When: June 6–9

🎟 Tickets: Free (registration recommended for closer access)

2.🐕 I Love Reggaeton Madrid 2026: If you know all the lyrics to Gasolina, this festival is for you

No tickets to Bad Bunny and no interest in receiving the blessings of Baby Jesus? Fret not, we have a consolation prize for you! The I Love Reggaeton festival is back in Madrid this weekend, turning IFEMA into a massive, open-air throwback to the golden years of reggaeton and electrolatino.

• We’re talking about 30+ artists, three outdoor stages, and a lineup we don't know, but if you like reggaeton, you probably do: Tito El Bambino, Henry Méndez, Cali & El Dandee, Lorna, Juan Magán, De La Ghetto… and many more.

• The concept for this is simple and effective: pure nostalgia. The festival is designed as a tribute to the early days of reggaeton (remember Gasolina?), before it became the global monster it is today, with a fully synchronized audiovisual show and back-to-back hits that defined an entire generation.

• There are two main stages running in parallel (so yes, you will have to make tough decisions), plus food trucks, chill areas, and enough perreo energy to power the city for a week and make you forget that you couldn’t afford Bad Bunny tickets.

Reggaeton might dominate the world now, but this is about where it all started; the era that made it mainstream and gave us the songs everyone still knows by heart. Dale con dale ✌️.

🖥️ What: I Love Reggaeton Festival Madrid 2026

📍 Where: IFEMA Madrid, Av. del Partenón 5, Madrid

📅 When: June 6

🎟 Tickets start at: €51,90 (hurry up, tickets are selling fast)

3. 🎭 La Loba: Bette Davis is back (and she’s not here to be ignored, losers)

What happens when one of Hollywood’s most iconic divas walks into a newsroom and places a classified ad… for herself? That’s the pretty absurd (and quietly devastating) premise of this play now running at the Fernán Gómez.

• A magnetic Mélida Molina embodies Bette Davis with bite and vulnerability, delivering a performance that feels both like a tribute to this undying Hollywood legend (at least for the boomers).

• The setup is simple: A veteran actress (three kids, decades in the industry, and a certain reputation) demands work in a system that has already decided she’s past her prime.

• What unfolds is a sharp, often funny, sometimes uncomfortable look at how the film industry treats women once they age out of desirability, even the ones who helped define it in the first place.

• The play leans into its love of classic cinema while pulling back the curtain on its darker dynamics: ego, power, rejection, survival.

• Did you know? In 1989, Bette Davis came to Spain to receive the Donostia Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival. It was her final public appearance, her last performance.

So trust us, it’s worth watching a character like Bette Davis refuse to fade quietly into irrelevance in this stylish homage to classic Hollywood that doubles as a critique of it.

🖥️ What: La Loba

📍 Where: Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa, Plaza de Colón 4, Madrid

📅 When: June 4–21

🎟 Tickets start at €20

4. 🩰 No tutus, no rules: SACRESIZE is the dance show redefining what a body can do

What if ballet, one of the most rigid, body-obsessed art forms out there, suddenly stopped caring about “ideal” bodies? Alberto Velasco offers a bold, unapologetic answer to that question that puts non-normative bodies front and center.

• The evening opens with SIZE, a short but striking piece where Velasco turns the “non-normative” body into something poetic, powerful and deeply expressive.

• Instead of treating size as a limitation, the choreography reframes it as a space of sensitivity and expansion, supported by an immersive audiovisual setup.

• Then comes SACRE, a reimagining of The Rite of Spring that leans into its original themes of tension and ritual but flips the narrative entirely, becoming intense and quietly subversive.

Velasco has built a career around challenging aesthetic norms (and literally wrote the book on it with Pobre, gordo y maricón), and continues to use dance as both an artistic and political tool. It forces you to rethink what dance and beauty are supposed to look like.

🖥️ What: SACRESIZE

📍 Where: Teatros del Canal, Calle de Cea Bermúdez 1, Madrid

📅 When: Through June 7

🎟 Tickets start at €20

5.🎬 FILMADRID: The coolest film festival you’ve probably never heard of is back