Matadero Madrid welcomes summer with European Music Day concerts and open-air cinema

• Families can enjoy morning concerts by La Fantástica Banda and Le Parody on Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st, respectively, at the Central de Diseño.
• In July, the CinePlaza ‘Superestrellas 3’ series will host hybrid experiences between music and film, featuring two audiovisual concerts and three special screenings with live commentary.
• Musicians like Christina Rosenvinge and Hidrogenesse, along with filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, actor Brays Efe, and journalist Alberto Rey, will join this celebration of cinema with their talent and cinephilia.
• Additionally, photographer Jesús Ugalde presents the exhibition ‘Nada espontáneo. Una mirada a los 90’ at Nave 15, featuring portraits of major figures from Spanish music.
• Tickets can be purchased at mataderomadrid.org.

Matadero Madrid, the contemporary creation center of the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sport, welcomes summer with a wide array of offerings. This weekend, it celebrates DEMM ’26, the festival commemorating European Music Day. From June 19 to 21, the festival includes eight concerts at Plaza Matadero and two morning music sessions for families in the Column Hall of the Central de Diseño.

Curated by music promoter Nacho Ruiz, with the collaboration of Heineken and visual identity created by Oficina Cerrada, DEMM ’26 offers a comprehensive overview that demonstrates the vibrant state of creativity in the Spanish music scene.

Starting in July, from Thursday to Sunday nights, Plaza Matadero will transform into an open-air summer cinema with a hybrid program connecting the seventh art with live music. All these musical and cinematic activities will take place under the watchful gaze of the portraits that make up photographer Jesús Ugalde’s exhibition, Nada espontáneo. Una mirada a los 90 ("Nothing Spontaneous: A Look at the 90s"), which peer out from the windows and doorways of Nave 15.

Major names in the current music scene at DEMM ’26

The first day of the European Music Day at Matadero (DEMM), Friday the 19th, will feature the audiovisual avant-garde of Maria Arnal, who will present her first solo album, AMA, in a show overflowing with imagination and spectacle.

Joining the lineup is Ángeles Toledano, a fundamental voice in contemporary flamenco who has rapidly evolved from a "flamenco revelation" to a solidified reality in Spanish-language music. The artist from Jaén condenses all her talent into her full-length debut, Sangre Sucia, released in September 2025. That same day, trombonist Rita Payés and pianist Lucía Fumero will take the stage to present their blend of jazz and folk in a show premiering in Madrid.

Closing this first musical day in an electronic key will be a DJ set by Gazzi, a reference in the country’s clubs and festivals, always opting for fun, risk, and a taste that cuts across genres and styles—featuring broken rhythms, pulsating atmospheres, and a unique universe that makes it impossible to resist the dance floor.

With tickets already sold out, Saturday, June 20, the second round of DEMM ’26 concerts will bring together three key names in the new pop scene. Charismatic and talented, pablopablo (Pablo Drexler) is one of the great revelations of recent times, a fact condensed in his debut, Canciones en Mi. Beyond being an essential collaborator for artists like Guitarricadelafuente or C. Tangana, pablopablo projects himself with his "pluscuamperfect" contemporary pop as one of the greats on the musical landscape.

Also participating is Alizzz (Cristian Quirante), who, starting from irresistible postmodern pop, has created songs that are automatic hits, spanning contemporary pop, trap, electronic music, or reggaeton. He has composed for artists like Rosalía, Amaia, Becky G, Lola Índigo, and Aitana, demonstrating his great melodic intuition.

Adding to this day of dance and fun is Depresión Sonora (Marcos Crespo), the unofficial spokesperson for his generation with a handful of songs that are already anthems. Los perros no entienden Internet (y yo no entiendo de sentimientos), his second album, reinforces and multiplies his ability to connect with the desires and frustrations of people his age through dark, irresistible post-punk.

Closing Saturday’s programming is Akazie, who is in a constant search for unexplored terrain. Starting from electronic music to build her own path and now based in Madrid, the DJ is one of the firmest realities on the national scene.

Family concerts at the Central de Diseño

DEMM ’26 also focuses on the educational and playful possibilities of music with special concerts for families. Two concerts will be held in the Column Hall of the Central de Diseño (tickets already sold out): Saturday the 20th with La Fantástica Banda and Sunday the 21st with Le Parody, at 12:00 PM.

DEMM ’26 Tickets and Schedule

The two concert sessions on Friday the 19th (tickets available) and Saturday the 20th (tickets sold out) at Plaza Matadero will cost 5 euros each and will take place between 8:00 PM and 1:15 AM. Tickets for Friday's session can be purchased at mataderomadrid.org.

CinePlaza 26: Film-concerts and films with live commentary

Under the title ‘Superestrellas 3’, the ninth edition of the summer CinePlaza program will host, from Thursday to Sunday nights, two film-concerts by prominent Spanish musicians accompanying their songs with live images; three sessions with films featuring live commentary; and a constellation of 11 titles traveling from the queer musical (with Marc Ferrer as a special guest) to the blaxploitation genre (with that seductive 70s soul), stopping along the way at lysergic "yeyé" films.

This year, Christina Rosenvinge will kick things off (Thursday, July 2)—a legend of indie music who has also been an actress and soundtrack composer. She will share her relationship with cinema in an evocative concert created ad hoc for this cycle. The most "arty" electropop duo in Spain, Hidrogenesse, will also return (Thursday, July 16) to deploy their iconoclastic humor in the Plaza de Matadero once again.

Furthermore, the program includes three special screenings: a surprise session prepared by Nacho Vigalondo (Sunday, July 5), one of the most imaginative minds in the audiovisual industry; an XL edition of ‘Linterna,’ the triumphant cycle led by Brays Efe and Miguel Agnes (Thursday, July 9); and, finally, a special screening of The Witches of Eastwick with superstars Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, commented on live by the always sharp Alberto Rey (Thursday, July 23).

CinePlaza also hosts 11 films spanning three refreshing styles: the queer musical, yeyé cinema, and blaxploitation—the genre that fought in the 70s against the stereotypical representation of African Americans in film.

CinePlaza Tickets and Schedule

Screened in their original version with Spanish subtitles, the titles will be shown in Plaza Matadero from Thursday to Sunday, between July 2 and 26, at 10:15 PM (except for the ‘Linterna XL’ session, at 9:30 PM). Tickets for the 11 films cost 3.50 euros, while sessions with live commentary can be enjoyed for 5 euros, and the two film-concerts cost 10 euros. Tickets can be purchased at cinetecamadrid.com and in person at the box office on screening days.

Jesús Ugalde exhibition: A look at the 90s

Cinema and music also join hands in the portrait exhibition by photographer Jesús Ugalde, displayed in the bays and windows of the Nave 15 façade. Nada espontáneo. Una mirada a los 90 features 22 selected snapshots from the photographer’s archive, who during that decade worked for the country's major record labels, such as Sony, Warner, and Universal.

The exhibition, which can be viewed by citizens passing through Plaza Matadero over the coming months, captures unique moments such as the recording of the album Sin documentos by Los Rodríguez, the first photoshoot of the then-unknown group La Oreja de Van Gogh, or portraits of Alejandro Sanz just before the release of Más, the album that would establish his stardom.

Within the exhibition, there is also space for cinema, with portraits of Antonio Banderas or Fernando Trueba (Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film for Belle Époque in 1993), as well as a very special photograph of the moment Carmen Maura is bathed in gazpacho, an iconic sequence from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. This photograph, which shows Pedro Almodóvar directing the scene, had not been publicly exhibited until now.