
A tapas festival hosted in Benimaclet's old town, now in its 14th year. Get off the metro or tram at Benimaclet station and follow your nose! €5 will buy you a strip of 4 tapas tickets or 4 drinks tickets. Read more about Benimaclet here.
If you grew up in the UK you probably lived in a house, with university halls being your first taste of living in a flat. After that you either get a house of your own or slink off back to your parents' gaff. Unless, of course, you move to another country. In Spain, over 65% of the population live in a piso or flat - something which may take some getting used to if, like me, you grew up in "the new estate" of a small Yorkshire pit village. Here's the view from my bedroom window at my parents' home. On a good day, you hear the odd car, the trickling of the neighbour's water feature and a … [Read more...]
DIVENDRES 11 19:00h Cercavila i Pregó Popular 20:30h Microteatre “Autostop 2.0: oda a l’existencialisme i a la democracia interna” 21:00h Sopar de Pa i Porta 22:00h Concerts: Pupil·les Dilatives i Smoking Souls en acústic DISSABTE 12 10:00h I Mundialet Reivindicatiu de Benimaclet, canxes de Vicent Saragossà 18:30h Debat Festes Alternatives, al final del Carrer de Diogenes Lopez Mencho 21:00h Prenem l’Escenari: Jam Sessió de Dones + Pati Difusa, CSOA L’Horta DIUMENGE 13 12:00h Pinta el teu Poble, punt de trobada a la plaça de Benimaclet 16:00h Pilota Valenciana, plaça de … [Read more...]
The annual Benimaclet carnival is back this year on the 13th of February. Festivities include a fire run courtesy of the local Colla de Dimonis and typical local music by the Colla Dolçaina i Tabal Roja de Benimaclet, organised by Joves Benimaclet and the Benimaclet neighbour's association. Parades, dancing, castells (human towers) and communal meals follow. The Benimaclet carnival is usually celebrated one week after its famous counterparts in Tenerife and Cadiz, yet this year shares the same weekend under the new name of #Festimaclet. Just like other years we'll witness the XXVIII … [Read more...]
La Ola Fresca is a charming delicafé with a lively atmosphere and terrace. Grab a pew among the quirky decorations and bookshelves and take advantage of tasty food from the regularly changing menu in this lovely delicafé on pedestrianised street, Calle Músico Magenti in Benimaclet. laolafresca.com boasts, “We are food enthusiasts, always keen to try new ideas - traditional favourites enlivened with our ‘Fresca’ twist of maybe lime, ginger, chilli, lemongrass or other mystery guests”. A great array of teas and coffees are available as well as craft bottled beers including BrewDog Punk IPA and … [Read more...]
It's 5am and you're sat on a wooden box painted to look like a coffin in the middle of a muddy garden drinking a can of Carrefour beer. To your left there's a group of people clapping and singing flamenco; to your right, a gaggle of punks huddled around a threadbare sofa. This was the scenario we found ourselves in last weekend after we unwittingly stumbled upon L'Eskombrera - a CSO (Centro social ocupado, or squat house) in the vegetable fields around Benimaclet, Valencia. The huge building, which was probably once used as an alquería or farm house, lies at the end of a dark, narrow road … [Read more...]
It only takes a short stroll around Valencia to realise that if there’s one thing the city's got (apart from lots and lots of rice) it's great street art. By no means an in-depth study, I’ve dug deep into the archives of my aging laptop -and even trekked around town with my trusty Nikon- to bring you a quick look at some of my favourite pieces. El Carmen Probably the first piece of street art that anyone new to the city sees is Blu's Moses with the huge beard of snakes opposite the tumbling car on the corner of nightlife hotspot, Plaza Tossal. The car, by native Valencian Escif, has … [Read more...]
This week sees the continuation of La Cueva's successful cinema ciclos with a delve into the world of "Music & Cinema". All movies are projected in the "self-managed" garage/planta baja in the charming Valencian barrio of Benimaclet. Entrance is free, beers are cheap and the place is set up with a pleasant mish-mash of comfortable sofas and chairs. This new ciclo comes after the Stanley Kubrik season which saw projections of Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, as well as a focus on Balkan Cinema which featured great movies such as No Man's Land (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2001). All … [Read more...]
I can’t decide which was the highlight of yesterday’s Benimaclet bar crawl: the superb bocadillo in El Chaval; or the little Chinese boy whipping his todger out and having a piss right in the middle of Molino III. And, damn, someone better teach that kid that a tiny scrunched up serviette is not going to clean up his warm little puddles of filth – it just smears it around, if anything. Alternatively we could just teach him not to piss on the floor. But who are we to decide how he lives his life… The bar crawl seems to be a typically British concept. Choose an area, choose your drinking … [Read more...]