Some weeks the thing most worth doing isn't in town at all, and this is one of them. I keep this letter to Estepona and Manilva on purpose, so fair warning: this issue leans on Casares more than usual. From Friday, the hill village turns into a small cinema for more than a week, Andalusian films only, free until the seats run out. Even without the films, it's a lovely place to spend an autumn afternoon, with views all the way down to the coast. The full picture is just below.

Down on the coast, the weekend has a generous streak. A charity rally leaves the Palacio for Morocco with a boot full of spectacles, a Manilva choir sings for children's Christmas presents, and a quiz night at the port turns wrong answers into good causes.

And a question to take up the hill with you: the flag over Estepona's town hall was first dreamed up by a man born a few streets from that cinema. Who was he? The answer's further down, and since it belongs to the same story, it stays in Casares too.

Here's everything worth doing.

I mentioned it last week and promised the programme, so here it is. The Festival Nuevo Cine Andaluz runs from Friday 2 to Saturday 10 October in 📍Casares, the hill village, thirteen editions in and devoted entirely to film made in Andalucía. Everything is free until the seats run out. Three picks for this week:

Fri 2 and Sat 3, from 18:00 · Short films, 📍Centro Cultural Blas Infante. The easiest way in. Each evening opens with the Cortos Exprés, very short films made against the clock last weekend, many of them in the village's own streets, and the audience helps pick the winner. At 21:00 the official shorts follow, a string of stories each over before you've decided whether you like it.

Mon 5, 18:30 · La priora. A premiere. The documentary follows Carmen Ladrón de Guevara, who in 1980 took on an old Carthusian monastery in Cazalla de la Sierra and turned it into a meeting place for artists from across Europe, and who today, after years of disputes, looks at it from across the road.

Wed 7, 18:30 · La maravilla que se muerde la cola. A documentary on a very current subject: holiday lets pushing residents out of Seville's neighbourhoods, told through fact, fiction and the songs of El Pali, the city's old troubadour. A debate that isn't confined to Seville.

Every evening has a second film at 21:00, and the full programme has the lot, trailers included.

Good to know: the films are Spanish-language productions, and I couldn't confirm whether screenings carry English subtitles, so if your Spanish is a work in progress, the shorts are the gentler start. Evening sessions mean a drive back down a winding mountain road in the dark, so pick your driver with that in mind.

The festival carries on into next week, with Enlorquecido, Miguel Poveda's journey in the footsteps of Lorca, and the closing gala on Saturday 10 October.

A week that sets off in style and keeps a charitable streak going throughout: a rally bound for Morocco, a choir singing for Christmas, a quiz for local causes, plus comedy, flamenco and a very long bike ride. Free unless noted.

Thu 1, 09:00 to 12:00 · Oasis Raid charity rally, 📍Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos. Small cars, big plans: a caravan of little city runabouts gathers for scrutineering before setting off for Algeciras and a nine-day, untimed crossing of Morocco. Estepona has waved off this rally for years, and it travels with a purpose: second-hand glasses and an optometry team for villages along the route. The send-off is at 12:00 on Thursday, so this one is for early readers.

Thu 1, 19:00 · AREME Quiz Night, 📍Gastropub Viceversa. 2€ to 3€. Part brain, part banter, all for local charities, on Thursday evening as this lands. There's even a prize for the funniest team name, so start workshopping.

Fri 2, 19:30 · Love to Sing: A Night of Magical Musicals, 📍CIVIMA, Manilva. 10€. The Love to Sing choir opens its season with favourites from film and stage, and every euro goes to the Duquesa Charitable Society of Saint George's Children's Christmas Appeal, which buys presents for local kids who'd otherwise go without. Tickets from 📍The Bookshop in Sabinillas (952 89 15 45) or by calling Maggie on 628 163 977.

Fri 2, 21:00 · Miguel Lago: Miserable Parte II, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. 24,20€. Stand-up in Spanish from a comedian who, by his own billing, has filled Spanish theatres for sixteen seasons running and writes a fresh show every year. One for fluent Spanish speakers, or anyone happy to laugh a beat behind the room.

Fri 2, 21:30 · Flamenco Night at Mi Caseta, 📍Recinto Ferial. From 45€. The fairground's staged flamenco evening is back for another Friday, with the option of turning it into dinner. It runs every Friday through October, so it keeps until a free night comes along.

Sat 3, from 08:00 · Gran Fondo Costa del Sol, 📍Recinto Ferial. Several hundred cyclists set off from the fairground on a 127 km loop through Casares, Gaucín and the Genal valley villages, finishing with the climb to Peñas Blancas before freewheeling back into town. Worth knowing if you're driving inland on Saturday morning; worth a cheer at the finish if you're not.

A changeover week at the Casa de las Tejerinas: an exhibition of flowers closes on Wednesday, while another, all in blue, has just opened. Both free, same hours: Tue to Fri 09:00 to 20:00, Sat 09:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 20:00.

The Quays carries most of the weekend down in Duquesa, Louie Louie turns it up late on Friday and Saturday with two tributes, and Sunday tries something new: a band with your lunch at the golf club. Free unless noted.

Thu 1, 21:30 · Rocking Johnny, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Duquesa. The Quays gets the weekend going early, on Thursday night as this lands.

Fri 2, 20:00 · Gabi's Gypsy Boys, 📍Huber Art & Food. 20€. Huber's small room goes to Paris for the night with jazz manouche, the swinging gypsy-guitar style of Django Reinhardt. Huber nights tend to fill up, so book rather than wander in.

Fri 2, 21:00 · Patricia Roe, 📍The Three Monkeys. A Friday-night set with drinks and bites; the bar suggests booking a table.

Fri 2, 21:30 · Zac & Bruno, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Duquesa. A duo the pub calls one of its firm favourites.

Fri 2, 23:30 · Madman, 📍Louie Louie Live. 12€. An Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath tribute: Paranoid, Iron Man, War Pigs and Crazy Train are all on the setlist. Heavy metal's founding fathers, well past bedtime.

Sat 3, 21:30 · Roy Leslie, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Duquesa. Back at The Quays, billed as big vocals for a big Saturday.

Sat 3, 23:30 · Hybrid Park, 📍Louie Louie Live. 12€ plus booking fee. One of the first Linkin Park tributes to come out of Spain, mixing songs from the band's latest album, released at the end of 2024, with the old hits. For anyone whose teenage years had a nu-metal soundtrack, and anyone who raised one.

Sun 4, 14:30 · Shaun O'Dowd & Patricia Roe, 📍Duquesa Golf Club. New this week: the golf club restaurant adds live music to Sunday lunch, with the singing running on into early evening for anyone who fancies a dance after dessert.

Sun 4, 19:00 · Wish Band, 📍Estudio Padrón. A new band of seasoned musicians playing rock, funk and reggae covers, put together, by their own account, mainly for the joy of it.

Sun 4, 21:00 · Michelle Daniels, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Duquesa. The hits you know, to see the weekend out by the harbour.

There's more music scattered through the week: the Love to Sing choir's musicals night at CIVIMA on Friday sits up in This Week.

Here's the answer from up top. Walk along Calle Carrera in Casares and you'll pass number 51, a plain village house where Blas Infante was born on 5 July 1885. The name is on the cultural centre hosting this week's films, but his real legacy is flying over your head: Infante was the driving force behind the green-and-white flag and the anthem of Andalucía, and he's honoured today as the Padre de la Patria Andaluza, the father of the Andalusian homeland.

His story doesn't end gently. He was shot in August 1936, in the first weeks of the Civil War, and it took decades for the region to give him his due.

His 📍birthplace is now a museum on his life and on Andalusian identity, with free entry, open 09:30 to 15:00 according to its listing. That makes it a daytime visit: pair it with lunch in the village rather than an evening at the films.

So next time you pass the flag on Estepona's town hall, you'll know which hill village it came from.

The markets that come round every week, so you always know what's on where.

Wednesdays · Mercadillo de Estepona. The big traditional one: fruit, veg, clothes, shoes and household bits at local prices. 📍Calle Francia / Calle Alemania, 09:00 to 14:00.

Sundays · Mercadillo de Puerto. A smaller, breezier affair by the marina: clothes, bags, jewellery and local art, with a coffee on the terraces after. 📍Puerto Deportivo, 09:00 to 14:00.

Sundays · Mercadillo Plaza de Toros. A flea market for antiques, collectibles and bric-a-brac at the bullring. One catch: it doesn't run every Sunday, so best to check before you head over. 📍Plaza de Toros, 09:00 to 15:00.

Sundays · Mercadillo Rastro, Sabinillas. One of the coast's best-loved flea markets, with over 100 stalls: second-hand finds, antiques, vinyl and a growing row of local craft sellers. 📍Recinto Ferial de San Luis, 09:00 to 14:00.

Casares already has the top of the letter to itself, so here's the rest of the neighbourhood: one very big weekend in Málaga and one small mystery in Marbella.

Thu 1 to Sun 4 · San Diego Comic-Con Málaga, 📍FYCMA, Málaga. From 84,80€ (four-day pass). It's here: doors open on Thursday and the costumes are out until Sunday. Panels, parking and the train option were all in last week's letter.

Sat 3, 19:00 · Déjà Vu: Peio Rivas, 📍Palacio de Congresos Adolfo Suárez, Marbella. 25€. A magic show built around that odd feeling of having lived a moment before, promising to leave you unsure whether you saw a trick or remembered one.

Just one this week, and it's a booking decision rather than a date to pencil in: the evening show is already close to full.

Sat 21 Nov, 18:00 and 21:00 · Michael's Legacy, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. 33€. A full live tribute to Michael Jackson, with a four-piece band, eight dancers and live vocals, billed by Spain's Michael Jackson fan club as the best show of its kind on the road. The songs are the ones a lot of us grew up with, in English, and the show is pitched at all ages. The 21:00 performance is nearly sold out; the 18:00 one still has room.

That's the week, from the silver screen in the hills to heavy metal at midnight. If you make it up to Casares, sit near the front and let me know what you'd recommend. Spot something I've missed? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.

Until next week.
Stefan