You can tell the season has turned without looking at a calendar. The first proper rain has rinsed the summer dust off the cars, jackets have come out of the back of the wardrobe, and pumpkins are appearing in shop windows faster than the council can put up the Halloween posters. Even the Mirador del Carmen is borrowing another country’s autumn this week.

The good news: there’s plenty on, with or without an umbrella.

And a small riddle to carry you through: which flower takes Estepona’s name around the world, yet could never survive a summer here? The answer is in Did You Know.

Here's everything worth doing.

For four days, the square around the 📍Mirador del Carmen turns Bavarian. Estepona’s Oktoberfest is a council-run affair, part of the Compartiendo Culturas programme that brings the town’s many nationalities together, and it comes with food, drink and a stage that barely pauses all weekend.

A confession from your German correspondent: I wince a little every time lederhosen and oompah become shorthand for my whole country. Oktoberfest is a Munich tradition, Bavarian at a stretch, and the rest of us mostly know it from postcards. The original even takes place largely in September, which tells you how seriously it takes the name. None of which will stop me turning up to inspect whatever is in the glasses.

Opening hours: Thursday and Friday 18:00 to midnight, Saturday 12:00 to midnight, Sunday 12:00 to 19:00. The council mentions no entry ticket, so expect to pay only for what lands on your table.

On stage:

If you prefer daylight and a free seat, aim for the weekend afternoons. The 22:00 sets are where the crowd should be.

The week leans cultural, from flowers and flamenco to Puccini, with Halloween already creeping in at the edges. Free unless noted.

From Thu 22 · El Arte de Estepona… Respira, 📍Casa de las Tejerinas. Nearly thirty digital artworks that take Estepona’s landmarks and monuments apart and put them back together, somewhere between figurative and abstract. The two artists behind it, founders of De la Orden Art Studio, live in Estepona and Ghent respectively, which makes this a long-distance love letter. Tuesday to Friday 09:00 to 20:00, Saturday 09:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 20:00, until 4 November. Part of the proceeds goes to Estepona’s cancer association.

Sat 24 & Sun 25 · 11ª Feria de Orquídeas y Planta de Colección, 📍Orchidarium. Growers from all over Spain set up outside the Parque Botánico-Orquidario with orchids you won’t find at the garden centre, plus carnivorous plants, South African bulbs and succulents. Browsing costs nothing. Inside, short workshops on orchid basics (Saturday and Sunday, 11:00) and carnivorous plants (Saturday, 17:00) need an Orchidarium ticket, 5€ (3€ pensioners), and a reserved seat: [email protected] or 951 51 70 74.

Sat 24 & Sun 25 · Campeonato de Andalucía de Escalada de Dificultad, 📍Recinto Ferial. Andalusia’s lead-climbing championship comes to the municipal climbing wall at the fairground, with categories running from under-nines to veterans. Watching is free, and a charity bar run by the local association Entregatos keeps spectators going. Saturday 08:00 to 22:00, Sunday 07:45 to 17:30.

Fri 23, 17:30 · El guardián de la biblioteca, 📍Centro Cultural Padre Manuel. Grandchildren visiting? Local actor Carlos Llovet plays a library guardian whose most beautiful book has been wiped blank by a wizard, and the children (aged 3 to 8) help write it back. In Spanish, free until the room is full.

Fri 23, 20:00 · Karaoke with Bob, 📍Monahan’s Irish Bar, Sabinillas. Bob has the microphone, you have the voice. Or at least the courage.

Fri 23, 21:00 · Esperanza Soria & Fernando Soto, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. From 22€. A tribute to María Jiménez and Bambino, two Andalusian voices famous for pouring everything into a song. Bambino died in 1999, María Jiménez in 2023, and Spaniards still know every word. Expect guitars, percussion, palmas and flute, and songs like Me muero and Te estás pasando.

Fri 23, 21:30 · Flamenco at the Peña, 📍Peña Flamenca de Estepona. 12€. Song, guitar and two dancers at the town’s flamenco club. A peña is an association run by aficionados, which usually means a small room and an audience that knows exactly when to shout olé.

Sat 24, 10:00 · Luxury Shell Art Experience, 📍BYOKO Estepona. 49€. Two guided hours turning scallop and oyster shells into decoupage pieces with gold detailing. All materials included, no artistic experience needed, and the shells go home with you.

Sat 24, 21:00 · Ciclo Flamenco Íntimo, 📍El Taller de Arte. 27,65€. Last week’s Radar pick, with only a handful of seats left at the time of writing.

Sun 25, 12:00 · Fiesta de los Muertos, 📍Jardines del Rosario, Casares Costa. A Halloween family day with bouncy castles, a costume catwalk, spooky characters and themed workshops, rounded off at 17:30 by the musical show Coco, la fiesta de los muertos. Costumes are very much encouraged.

Mon 26, 19:30 · Stephen King week, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. Fifty years after Carrie reached Spanish cinemas, the Teatro hands its evenings to Stephen King. Monday opens the King Universe exhibition of posters, books and memorabilia from around the world (on show until the end of October), followed by a talk in Spanish at 20:00 and Carrie at 20:30. Christine screens on Tuesday at 19:30, The Dark Tower on Wednesday at 19:30. The week ends on Friday 30 with a horror-soundtrack concert, more on that next Thursday.

Wed 28, 20:00 · Madama Butterfly, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. From 39,60€. Puccini’s great tearjerker: a young bride in Nagasaki, an American naval officer who treats the marriage as a holiday romance, and three acts of waiting that end the way you fear they will. Numbered seats, so the earlier you book, the better the view.

Things that started earlier and are still worth your time, beginning with the ones about to disappear. Free unless noted.

Friday is the busy night, from Cuban son to a pub singalong and a late rock double bill, and the weekend winds down with an early-evening band in Sabinillas. Free unless noted.

Fri 23, 20:00 · Habana Vieja, 📍Huber Art & Food. 20€. A night of Cuban son at Huber. They ask for bookings in advance, so call 608 359 656 before you set off.

Fri 23, 21:00 · Steve Palmer, 📍The Three Monkeys. Steve’s first solo night at the Three Monkeys: Oasis, the Stones, the Beatles, INXS, the Clash and Dire Straits, with you on backing vocals. Book a table on 693 594 600.

Fri 23, 23:30 · Trylobites + Dos Cretinos, 📍Louie Louie. 10€. Two bands, one ticket, and a start time for those who don’t do early nights.

Sat 24, 20:00 · Francis Posé, Limón García & Daniel Amat, 📍Huber Art & Food. 20€. Three musicians share Huber’s stage for one concert. Details beyond the poster are thin, so ring ahead for a table: 608 359 656.

Sat 24, 23:30 · Riff Raff Reunion, 📍Louie Louie. 16,50€. The AC/DC tribute returns to Louie Louie, where by the venue’s own account they have nearly brought the stage down before.

Sun 25, 18:00 · Lara & The Soulmates, 📍Rose & Thistle · Manilva. A four-piece playing a bit of everything to see the weekend out, back by popular demand. Tables on 952 155 850.

More music elsewhere in this issue: the Oktoberfest stage runs from Thursday to Sunday, including a Queen tribute on opening night, the Fiesta de los Muertos in Casares Costa ends with a musical on Sunday, and Puccini fills the Teatro on Wednesday.

The flower that can’t come home

In the cloud forests of Guatemala, nearly two kilometres up, grows an orchid whose flowers, around 11 centimetres across, hang downwards from the plant. Science had no name for it until 2020, when Guatemalan orchid expert Fredy Archila and a colleague described it as a new species and called it Stanhopea esteponae.

Yes, after us. Archila chose the name to honour the conservation work done at Estepona’s Parque Botánico-Orquidario, home to the largest orchid collection in Spain, and the Orchidarium set aside a space for its namesake.

The twist: the plant itself can’t live here. It’s a cool-mountain species, and with summer temperatures inside the glass domes reaching around 30 degrees, keeping it alive in Estepona was reported at the time to be impossible. A flower that carries the town’s name around the world, and will never feel at home in it.

Worth a thought this weekend, when the orchid fair sets up outside those same domes.

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.

Just one reason to head west this week, and it has four wheels.

Fri 23, 13:30 · Luxury & Sports Cars Exhibition, 📍Fresco Marina, Puerto Sotogrande. GT Race Marbella parks a line-up of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches by the marina for the afternoon. No booking, and photos are very much the point.

One night only, numbered seats, a 600-seat hall: here the thing to book is the seat.

Sat 7 November, 20:00 · New Magic Experience, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. From 22€. Illusionist Jammes Garibo, a winner of Spain’s national magic prize and a regular at Hollywood’s Magic Castle, brings a renewed big-illusion show for a single performance. Magic needs little translation, which makes this one of the easier Teatro nights for non-Spanish speakers. Recommended from age four. Full details nearer the date.

Next week belongs to Halloween: a costume party at the Palacio with serious prize money for the best-dressed groups, and a symphonic band playing horror soundtracks at the Teatro. If there’s a costume at the back of a cupboard somewhere, consider this your warning.

Until next week.
Stefan