Madrid No Frills

26/07/2026

The Ávila fire, not far from Madrid, has now burned 50,000 hectares and is officially the largest fire in recent Spanish history.

So far this year, wildfires have burned 153,000 hectares, an area six times larger than that recorded 10 years ago.

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16/07/2026

Spain’s housing crisis finally came for the tenants of Madrid’s Calle Tribulete 7 when their block was sold to an investment fund. Feeling pressured to leave by rent increases and aggressive construction works that flooded some apartments, they did everything they were supposed to do: organise meetings, contact the Madrid tenants union and find a lawyer. They also protested, spoke to journalists and created an Instagram account to spread the word. But they also did something I’d never seen before.

My Opinion piece headlining in the Guardian today:

When an investment fund bought their building, the residents of Tribulete 7 protested in the only way they knew how – through radical creativity, says multimedia journalist Leah Pattem

14/07/2026

His victory against Madrid’s right-wing city council – an institution as powerful as it is subpar – is a testament to organised resistance. Yet, I found myself honing in on a different story. How does someone become the last person left in a building and refuse to leave? Who is Alejandro Ibáñez, and what world produced a person who has spent a lifetime refusing to back down?

“I was born in a concentration camp,” he tells me.

“This is my home until the day I die, as is stated in the contract,” says Alejandro, whose battle has become the heart of a local campaign backed by the members of the new neighbourhood association AV La Chispera. “Alejandro resisted, and with good reason,” says the association. “His resis...

11/07/2026

Green spaces cool neighbourhoods, clean the air, absorb rainwater, and make dense cities more liveable, but they also create places where people stay long enough to get to know one another, forging civic leadership 🌱

Hidden behind an unassuming metal gate on Calle Doctor Fourquet 24, the self-managed garden became a living lesson. My students planted seeds that would grow into vegetables, observed insects and raked up fallen leaves. They played with neighbors of different generations, and discovered that learnin

08/07/2026

Brand-new photography exhibition ‘Rollo Mundial’ celebrates the World Cup by bringing football back down to earth, using analogue cameras to capture the barrio-level sense of community that has always been at the heart of the sport.

🗓️ Until 19 June, in POTE café bar. All details below 👇🏾

Brand-new exhibition in Prosperidad celebrates the World Cup by bringing football back down to earth, using analogue photography to capture the barrio-level sense of community that has always been at the heart of the sport.

07/07/2026

Urban Sky Frame, Alvarado 🌇

24/06/2026

Four lads turn up carrying wooden pallets they seem to have found off the street. They stack them into a pyramid and, beneath it, students feed in old homework they’ve already set alight. Next, a woman tosses her notes from a recent oposición exam into the growing flames 🔥🔥🔥

The bonfires of San Juan are a celebration of the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year. The spiritual idea of cleansing yourself with fire following the most extreme orbit of the earth around the sun is giving major Pagan. Even if we may not think much about the history of this ancient ritual and are mostly here for a good time, the simplicity and spectacle of it is all pretty contagious.

📰 Full article: https://madridnofrills.com/madrids-solstice-bonfire-night/

📸 Dani Piedrabuena

22/06/2026

Ávila No Frills

22/06/2026

Madrid for tourists exists, but it doesn’t have to come at the expense of residents. Foreigners needn’t be relegated to tourist traps, nor necessarily encouraged to ‘discover’ neighbourhood bars where abuelos play dominoes on green felt table cloths.

There’s a middle ground: places that are welcoming and accessible to tourists while still holding on to Madrid’s character and credibility. Places that want to be written about.

Bar el Brillante is one of those places ✨

18/06/2026

Saturday’s screening of our documentary ‘Soy Tribulete 7’ at the Reina Sofía was an event I’ll never forget ✨ We were thrilled by the fantastic turnout, and especially touched to see so many people returning for a second viewing and bringing along friends and family 💞

As always, a huge thank you to our incredible team of friends who helped make the event such a success, and to our neighbours at Museo Situado, Museo Tentacular and for their support in bringing our film – and the struggle of the residents of Tribulete 7 – to arguably the most prestigious venue in the country ✊🏾🩷✊🏼

🎥 David Jar