Valencia Weekend | Salomé at Les Arts, Rice Fest & New Art in the City
Buen finde! A weekend for food lovers and culture hunters alike. The Plaza del Ayuntamiento hosts TastArròs, a celebration of Valencia’s rice culture. Les Arts premieres a new production of Salomé, the International Ceramics Biennale opens in Manises, and there’s free classical music at the Palau de la Música on Sunday — along with a wave of new exhibitions across the city. Also, for flamenco fans, the Feria Andaluza starts this weekend.
15K Valencia — Sunday 26 April: The 15k run to the sea takes place Sunday morning. Expect road closures and diversions in the maritime neighbourhoods. Plan your route accordingly.
Regular readers will notice a new section: Community Calendar — events hosted by readers and supporters of the growing Pont de Valencia community. Want to add something? Get in touch.
Feria Andaluza 2026
Seville’s famous Feria de Abril is recreated in miniature in Valencia with this celebration of all things Andalucian. A full week of flamenco singing and dancing, plus Andalucia’s favorite foods and Sevilla’s sherry-based cocktails, rebujitos. It takes place at the Turia Park fairground between Puente de las Flores and the Puente de la Exposición.
For more details and the full program: Visit Valencia
Food & Drink
TastArros — Plaza del Ayuntamiento
The Plaza del Ayuntamiento becomes the centre of Valencia’s rice universe this weekend, with paella, arroz a banda, arroz meloso and more from the region’s top producers and restaurants. A showcase of the rice culture that defines Valencian gastronomy.
Vermouth Festival — Bodegas Valsangiacomo, Cabanyal
Bodegas Valsangiacomo hosts a one-day vermouth festival in Cabanyal on Friday, 25 April. €15 covers three tastings and tapas — a well-priced afternoon in Valencia’s distinctive beach neighborhood.
Valencia is Coffee – Specialty Coffee Fest, La Petxina
This annual festival at the Petxina Cultural Complex draws the city’s specialty coffee scene — from baristas to roasters — for a weekend of workshops, talks (in Spanish), and tastings. For a practical guide to ordering coffee in Spain, see Mireille’s recent coffee explainer.
Live Music & Opera
Les Arts opens its new production of Richard Strauss’s Salomé this weekend — a bold, “claustrophobic” staging that Valencia Plaza described as finding the opera’s “true voice.” One of the major productions of the season. Read Valencia Plaza’s review
Two events this weekend: pianist Rubén Talón makes his debut in a chamber music concert, and the Valencia Orchestra performs a free concert on Sunday. The free Sunday concert is a good entry point if you haven’t been to the Palau before.
INOCON — Berklee Valencia at the Centre del Carme
The Centre del Carme collaborates with Berklee Valencia for a weekend of electronic and experimental music workshops and concerts. A reliable showcase of emerging talent from one of the city’s most distinctive cultural venues.
The Tobias Meinhart Quartet on Thursday performs as part of the spring cycle, and saxophonist Igor Lempert and his quartet early next week.
Veteran American rock-poet Elliott Murphy — a New Yorker long based in Paris — plays Loco Club this weekend. A cult figure in European rock circles with a career spanning five decades.
Art & Exhibitions
María Blanchard & Julio González — Museu de Belles Arts
New works by two significant figures of the Spanish avant-garde — cubist painter María Blanchard and sculptor Julio González — are now on display at the Bellas Artes Museum. Free entry.
María Carbonell – The Subversive Stitch
A new exhibition of works by María Carbonell at the Carmen Cultural Center (CCCC). Inspired by the feminist banners of the Suffragette movement, employing domestic embroidery as a subversive tool.
Fleeting Bodies, Barbaric Landscapes — Fundación Chirivella Soriano
Isabel Oliver’s new show at the Chirivella Soriano Foundation brings together work that moves between the figurative and the elemental. Read Makma’s review
Retorno al jardín — Alba Cabrera Gallery
Carmen García Gordillo’s new exhibition at the Alba Cabrera Gallery, centered on the return to an Eden-like garden. Running through May. Read Makma’s review
International Ceramics Biennale — Manises
Manises hosts its International Ceramics Biennale, showcasing contemporary ceramic art from around the world in the town that has been synonymous with Valencia’s ceramic heritage for centuries.
On The Community Calendar
Who Knows One Game Show — La Batisfera, Monday 27 April
The popular English-language social trivia night returns to La Batisfera in Cabanyal on Monday evening, hosted by Micah Hart. A good option if you’re new to the city or looking to expand your social circle.
Source of the week
La València Olvidada — the forgotten history podcast
Cadena SER Radio Valencia’s history podcast covers the episodes of Valencian history that rarely make it into the guidebooks. This week’s episode explores how the Micalet bell tower — the cathedral’s famous landmark — nearly did not survive the Civil War. Good practice for Spanish listeners at an intermediate level and for anyone curious about the city beneath the city. Listen on Cadena SER
