A little after 3pm on a weekday afternoon, the footsteps and voices that echoed along the hallowed halls of the Prado were silenced by a series of percussive detonations that could have been mistaken for an indoor fireworks display.
The source of the disruption, however, was not a vandal or a protester. Watched over by the eight muses for whom the Madrid museum’s Sala de las Musas is named, a tall, famous and angular flamenco dancer called El Yiyo was clicking, clapping, stomping and pirouetting before a rapt, grateful and slightly bemused audience. A few feet away sat the renowned guitarist Rafael Andújar, who had ambled into the sala a few moments earlier, taken his seat and begun to fill the air with notes.
When El Yiyo finished his performance to loud applause 10 minutes later, he had hardly broken a sweat – which was very much the idea as the concert was part of an initiative that aimed to coax both visitors and madrileños into air-conditioned cultural venues during the sweltering afternoons of July and August.
With summer temperatures that can reach 41C (106F), the streets of the Spanish capital are not a pleasant place to be during the hottest hours of the day.
The new programme, called Refúgiate en la cultura (Take Shelter in Culture), offers free flamenco shows – in the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museums, and the Royal Collections Gallery – as well as free comic monologues in libraries and discounted cinema tickets for screenings before 5pm.
“We’re obviously aware that summer can be a complicated time – and that there are more and more tourists in Madrid in July and August, which used to be months when we got very few foreign visitors,” said Marta Rivera de la Cruz, Madrid’s councillor for culture, tourism and sport.
“We knew we needed to come up with some alternatives so that these people weren’t out on the streets at the hottest times of the day. So we thought, why not make use of places that are really well air conditioned and that also offer some extraordinary culture? And that meant museums, cultural centres, libraries and cinemas.”
As Rivera de la Cruz points out, while the city’s inhabitants know how to cope with the heat – largely by staying indoors and keeping cool – visitors may not, and may also be tempted to pack in as much sightseeing and culture as they can.
“That’s why we’re suggesting that if you come to Madrid for a few days, you should visit the Prado at the hottest time of the day,” she said.
Although Madrid has always been as hot in summer as it is cold in winter, the effects of the climate crisis are becoming ever more acute in the capital – as elsewhere in Spain.
“I think Refúgiate en la cultura is proof of the fact that the authorities have to provide ways to help people shelter and escape from these very hot times of the day, which people are more and more aware of,” said Rivera de la Cruz. “You have to take them seriously and you have to respect them. Being out on the streets isn’t a very good idea, but we have to give people alternatives.”
The councillor also says the activities will not generate any additional carbon footprint as the spaces involved are already air conditioned. “It’s about taking advantage of the spring conditions in museums when it’s much hotter outside,” she added.
Madrid city council hopes the initiative will become an annual programme that will complement the free Veranos de la villa concerts, plays and cultural events that have been a summer fixture in the capital for the past 40 years.
Despite some initial shock, the reaction to El Yiyo’s dancing suggests there is ample appetite for more flamenco/gallery fusion.
“I was just sitting here when I heard all this clattering,” said Lydia Pulsinelli, who was visiting Madrid from Knoxville, Tennessee. “I thought it was children playing but then I saw this guy dancing. It was great.”
The bailaor himself was also pleased with the reception.
“It’s another way of doing things on another kind of stage but it’s beautiful and I feel pretty good doing it,” he said. “At the beginning, I thought the audiences might be a bit unresponsive but people really get into it and we connect.” And, he added: “It’s a way to beat the heat.”
