Many decades ago, Madrid earned a well-deserved fame as a city made for pleasure, partying, vice and nightlife. As much as some, driven by melancholy, are determined, the nightlife of Madrid was not born with the famous Movida, that countercultural, casual and somewhat provocative movement that, in the first years of the Transition, took over in the capital of party rooms, cocktail bars, discotheques, radio stations, fanzines, etc. No: the Madrid nightlife was not given birth by the Movida; Madrid's nightlife existed before. Perhaps it always existed.
As in all the great capitals of the world, in Madrid life neither stopped nor stops when the sun goes down over Portuguese lands. On the contrary: when the sun goes down, life in Madrid seems to become effervescent. This was already happening, for example, at the beginning of the last century. There are novels that talk about it. And paintings. Salvador Dalí, for example, made some drawings in which he tried to capture in the early twenties the atmosphere of trendy taverns, cafes and bars that, at that time, bubbled up Madrid's nightlife.
This lively nocturnal atmosphere of the city continued during the years of the Second Republic and, although it may seem the opposite, also during the Franco dictatorship. And it is that the bars and gambling dens in Madrid did not open on the nights of the fifties only and exclusively so that Ava Gardner increased his myth of partying drinker and man-eater, no. The bars and gambling dens in Madrid opened for a large number of people who turned Madrid nights into the colorful and playful tinsel that fled from the grayness of Francoism. In the Madrid night, gentlemen and flamencos mingled, established artists and aspiring artists, businessmen enriched by the estraperlo and lovers with glass stockings and a maintained floor. Nothing better than the Madrid night of those times to check how, in times of compulsory catechesis and almost perpetual Lent, people look for their own spaces to make a sneaky cut of sleeves to those who try to tell them how and when they can have fun.
La Movida gave the Madrid night a punk, thug and countercultural air and turned it into a center of reference for nights in many cities. The airs of London and Amsterdam swept through Madrid's nightlife and the Movida became something like a gale of freedom that took the last ashes of Francoism and made Madrid the center of reference for nightlife in the whole country. There are those who say that all that gale of the Movida was only a fashion and that, after that gale, everything was the same as before on the night in Madrid. That it returned it castizo, we go. And to affirm that is to sin from injustice with the wonderful versatility and variety of Madrid's nightlife.
And is that if Madrid is called "European Capital of the Night" it is not on a whim. To speak of Madrid's nightlife is to speak of an endless range of leisure offers spread across a handful of neighborhoods whose fame transcends the limits of the Spanish capital itself. Names like Malasaña, Chueca, La Latina or Princesa have become inescapable visiting points for all those who want to know Madrid's nightlife.
Madrid's nightlife has a leisure offer made to meet the needs of all kinds of people who want to enjoy the night in the Spanish capital.
Those who want to look for the last echoes of what the Movida was and stroll through the natural territory of that movement must stroll through the streets of Malasaña. In many Malasaña venues, the eighties aesthetics continue to prevail. Disco-pubs such as La Vía Láctea, Penta or TupperWare or the Madrid Me Mata museum-bar, cocktail bars, terraces and musical venues with underground aspirations and where historical themes of rock, punk or indie music are played over and over again. Pop makes Malasaña an essential neighborhood to enjoy Madrid's nightlife.
Those who want to find a good assortment of restaurants and tapas bars can, for example, drop by La Latina. There they will find the traditional Casa Lucio and its famous starred eggs but also a good handful of restaurants and an endless number of tapas bars scattered around the squares of La Cebada or La Paja or streets such as those of Cava Alta, Cava Baja, Toledo, Calatrava or Humilladero, among others. La Latina is the neighborhood of the famous theater that bears his name, the Berlin Cabaret and a flamenco tablao with the prestige and fame of the Corral de la Morería.
Along with Malasaña and La Latina, Princesa is one of the most active areas of Madrid's already active nightlife. Why? Because in it there are many higher schools and many university residences. That is to say: because it is an area in which many young people live. And these young people nourish the nightlife centers of Princesa with vitality. In Princesa many young people from Madrid have fun at night, who can dine at any of the many bars, taverns and fast food chains in the area, and end the night moving the skeleton in the large nightclub Sala Marco Aldany (ideal for lovers of the house) or in its branches Pirandello I and Pirandello II, that at night they become anthills of young people who want to enjoy Madrid's nightlife. Along with them, places like La Sal, Cats, Mamá no lo saber, La Dama or TNT, places where you can listen to music ranging from house to rock, heavy or punk and that breathe nightlife into the Princesa area .
If Princesa is the area traditionally associated with nightlife for a large part of Madrid's youth, Chueca is the name that, for a time now, has been associated with the gay and lesbian scene. Dance-clubs, relaxed terraces such as those of the Hotel Room Mate Óscar or those of the Mercado de San Antón, nightclubs ... the nightlife offer in Chueca is vast, as is the so-called Madrid de las Letras, that is, that of that area where authors of the stature of Cervantes, Quevedo, Góngora or Lope de Vega lived, among others. There you will most likely find young girls willing to have a good time with sex.
Madrid de las Letras is an area where taverns and inns still abound and where "nightlife" is very pleasant. The fact that most of its streets are pedestrianized make this area of Madrid an ideal area for walking and enjoying the wide range of music offered by its premises. In places like Café Central, Fídula, Populart, Cardamomo or Carbones 13 you can taste excellent sessions of jazz, blues, soul, flamenco or music closer to standard pop. It is easy to see sophisticated women in these parts with whom to have a good conversation.
As you can see, the nightlife in Madrid may well have no end. And it is that the Madrid nightlife does not end in those neighborhoods. The one in Salamanca, for example, offers elegance and sophistication. In the Serrano 41 disco or in the disco-bar The Office, for example, you can enjoy house, funky or pop music in the select atmosphere of Madrid's most select neighborhood. Contrasting with it, and serving as a symbol of how Madrid's nightlife can be varied, is the Lavapiés neighborhood. Multicultural and multi-ethnic, Lavapiés is the ideal neighborhood to treat yourself to a dinner with exotic flavors from Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, India, Senegal ...
As you can see, opportunities to enjoy Madrid's nightlife are not lacking. That is why we do not allow you to get bored at night in Madrid. Do not hesitate, the night is long and the list of contacts in Madrid that you can do is very long.