Let us take a moment to recover from last week.

The Virgen del Carmen went down to the sea on Thursday, and thousands came to watch her go: the seafront full, the flotilla out across the bay, the whole thing done exactly as it has been done for generations.

Then on Sunday, Spain beat Argentina and took a second world title, and the whole region went off like a firework. You could hear the coast from one end to the other: horns through the streets, flags out of car windows, a party in every plaza that ran well past the point anyone should have been awake.

And somewhere in among all that there were still ferias, concerts and a bullring full of spectacular motocross.

If you did all of it, you have earned a quiet week. Happily, this is one. Not empty, but calmer: the sort of week where you can pick one evening and give it your full attention rather than sprinting between three.

And if you pick one thing, make it the bullring. For two nights it stops being a bullring and becomes an opera house, free of charge, and the whole thing hangs on getting there before the seats run out.

Let's get into it.

Fri 24 and Sat 25, 21:00. 📍Plaza de Toros. Free.

The town hall has put on a Festival Lírico in the bullring: an opera on the Friday, a zarzuela on the Saturday, both performed by the Málaga company Teatro Lírico Andaluz under Pablo Prados. Both nights are free.

Friday is Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The story of a young Japanese woman who marries an American naval officer and waits for him to come back. It failed spectacularly on its opening night at La Scala in 1904, was reworked, and has been one of the most performed operas in the world ever since. If you have never sat through an opera and have been quietly meaning to, a free one in the open air on a warm night is about as low-risk as the experiment gets.

Saturday is Agua, azucarillos y aguardiente, a one-act zarzuela by Federico Chueca from 1897. Zarzuela is Spain's own form: sung and spoken, comic, and set among ordinary people rather than gods and emperors. This one takes place over a single summer evening in a Madrid park, among people who have very little money and a great deal of opinion about each other. Lighter than the Friday, and closer to home.

The one thing that matters practically: entry is free until the ring is full, and there is no ticket to hold your place. So arrive early, particularly on the Friday.

Calmer than last week, and better for it. Film music at the Orquidario tonight, combat sports on a village square, a white-dress night at the Mirador, and flamenco in the bullring to close the weekend. Friday belongs to the bullring too, and that is up at the top.

Tonight is the exception. Three things start at ten o'clock and you are picking one: film music at the Orquidario, the music school teachers playing the castle down in Duquesa, and a Cuban jazz orchestra in the bullring, which is down in Live Music. The first two are free, the third is 18€.

Thu 23, 22:00 · Bandas Sonoras en Femenino — "Esencia de Mujer", 📍Parque Botánico Orquidario. Free. Eight decades of film music sung by women, from Suspiros de España in 1939 through Marilyn Monroe, Marisol, Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston to the 2019 Aladdin. The singers are local: Estepona's own Ana Fargas, the Málaga singer-songwriter Virginia Alexandre, and three more, with a dance school performing alongside. Outdoors, in the Parque del Orquidario, after dark. Bring something to sit on.

Thu 23, 22:00 · Live music at the Castle, 📍Castillo de la Duquesa. Free. The teaching staff of Manilva's municipal school of music, dance and theatre play a set inside the castle walls. The easier option if you are down that end of the coast.

Sat 25, 20:00 · The Chance Arena Sabinillas II · Manilva. Free. Kickboxing, K-1 and Muay Thai, in a ring set up on 📍Plaza de los Naranjos in the middle of Sabinillas. Free to watch, and worth knowing either way: if combat sport is your thing, this is a rare chance to see it on your doorstep, and if it is not, the square will be busy and loud from eight.

Sat 25, 21:30 · La Noche Blanca, 📍Mirador del Carmen. 7€ in advance, 8€ on the door. A white night in aid of the Fundación APRONA, with Compás Flamenco and Sótano Sur performing. The clue is in the name: white is the dress code. Cheap, for a good cause, and the Mirador is a good room for it.

Sun 26, 19:00 · Alba Moreno y Canelita, 📍Plaza de Toros. 25€. A flamenco festival pairing the bailaora Alba Moreno with the cantaor Canelita, two artists with real standing on the national circuit. Flagged on the Radar last week, and here it is. Tickets in advance on giglon.com, or at the bullring box office on the day.

Mon 27, 22:00 · Cine de Verano — “A Minecraft Movie”, 📍Parque Botánico Orquidario. Free. The free open-air cinema is back at the Orquidario after last Monday's detour to Cancelada. In Spanish, as always, so a gentle workout for anyone practising.

Tue 28, 19:00 · Mercado Medieval, 📍Castillo de la Duquesa. Free.
The castle spends a week in another century, from Tuesday until Monday 3 August: stalls set out around the walls, street performers, musical parades, live shows and workshops for children, right next to the sea. Open every evening from 19:00 until 2 in the morning, which makes it an easy one to fold into an evening rather than plan around.

Tue 28, 21:30 · Bailes de las Noches de Verano, 📍Plaza del Reloj. Free. This week's instalment of the town's free summer dance season moves to the Plaza del Reloj: classical ballet, modern jazz and Latin dance from the Escuela de Baile MT under Martina Tessaro. A performance this time rather than last week's workshop, so you can sit and watch.

An odd assortment this week: a Cuban orchestra in a bullring tonight, two nights running at Huber, a rock bar at half past eleven, and a Havana dynasty playing a hotel bar you need to book a table to get into.

Thu 23, 22:00 · Una Noche en la Habana, 📍Plaza de Toros. 18€.
The Bernáldez Latin Jazz Orchestra take the bullring back to Havana in the 1950s and 60s: Guantanamera, Lágrimas Negras, El Cuarto de Tula, El Manisero. Billed as an evening to sing and dance along to rather than sit through politely. Tonight, and up against two free concerts, as noted above. Tickets on giglon.com.

Fri 24, 20:00 · Elías Bolufer invites Toni Mora & Clara Sallago, 📍Huber Art and Food. 15€, cash only.
The trumpeter Elías Bolufer hosts, joined by Toni Mora and the singer Clara Sallago, a Barcelona-trained jazz vocalist who has led her own quartet through the city's clubs and spent a few years working in Paris. Small room, so reserve on 608 35 96 56.

Fri 24, 23:30 · La New Sensation, 📍Louie Louie Live. Free.
A late Friday set at the marina rock bar. Free in, and the room has form for keeping people well past the point they meant to leave.

Sat 25, 18:30 · Rebecca Lane, 📍Healy's Irish Bar. Free.
Two hours of jazz, blues, rockabilly and rock and roll at the marina bar, from fifties standards to more recent things. Early enough that it leaves the rest of the evening open, which this Saturday is worth knowing.

Sat 25, 20:00 · Flamenco: A Cobre y Luna, 📍Huber Art and Food. 20€, cash only. Huber's second night running, this time flamenco: the cantaora Rocío Bazán with Andrés de la Luz on guitar. Just the two of them, no dancer, no cajón, which is flamenco at its barest and least forgiving. In a room this size you will hear the breath between the phrases. Reserve on 608 35 96 56.

Sat 25, 20:00 · Chuchito Valdés, 📍Finca Cortesin.
The third generation of one of Cuban jazz's great dynasties: son of Chucho, grandson of Bebo, a pianist and arranger carrying a considerable name. One condition, and it is a firm one: this is part of the hotel's Blue Bar Nights, and entry is only for guests with a confirmed table booking. No walk-ins, no door. If you want to go, ring 952 937 800 or email [email protected] first.

Beyond those, there is music all over the rest of the letter: the Festival Lírico takes the bullring on Friday and Saturday, Alba Moreno and Canelita bring flamenco there on Sunday, La Noche Blanca has two acts at the Mirador on Saturday, and Manilva's music school teachers play the castle tonight. All up in This Week.

Spain are world champions again, and half the coast is still hoarse. So here is a local footnote to a very large week.

For a town this size, Estepona is unusually well supplied with places to play. There is the Estadio Municipal Francisco Muñoz Pérez, opened in 2007 out on the edge of town, which is where the town hall put the big screens up for Sunday's final.

There is the athletics stadium, built to full competition measurements with a football pitch inside the track and room for over 1,500 spectators, and built, in a piece of engineering nobody mentions, on top of a two-storey car park holding around a thousand cars. And then there is the old one, in the middle of everything.

The Campo de Fútbol San Fernando was built in the middle of the last century, and the town's clubs moved into it in 1954. For most of its life the pitch was not grass at all but albero, the compacted yellow earth you still see in bullrings. It stayed that way until 1991, when the club won promotion and the town finally laid turf. Artificial grass followed in 2003.

And the part that says something about the place: in 2024, when the pitch at the new stadium was being replaced, the club took a league match back to San Fernando. Tickets went on sale at the club office, and a full house was expected. People turned out for the old ground, the tight stands and the noise, in a way they do not for the new one.

New stadiums are better in almost every measurable respect. They are just harder to love.

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, 9:00 to 14:00.

Sundays · Mercadillo de Puerto. A smaller, breezier affair by the marina: summer clothes, bags, jewellery and local art, with a coffee on the terraces after. 📍Puerto Deportivo, 9:00 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, 9:00 to 15:00.

Thursday to Sunday · Summer Market. New for the season: around 30 stalls of crafts, food and attractions have taken over the seafront promenade for warm-evening browsing. Craft and food stalls run 19:00 to midnight at 📍Paseo Marítimo; the funfair attractions are open daily. On until 6 September.

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, 9:00 to 14:00.

Friday to Sunday 18:00 to 00:00 · Mercado del Mar, Sabinillas. A seasonal craft market right on the seafront: handmade goods, accessories and art under the stars. 📍Paseo Marítimo de Sabinillas (by La Noria), until 30 August.

(The Mercado Medieval on the Castillo de la Duquesa, on until Monday 3 Aug, is a one-off rather than a regular. It is covered up in This Week.)

Starlite is having a heavy week, five names in seven nights, and there is a flamenco piece in Sotogrande for anyone who prefers their flamenco close up.

Sun 26, 21:30 · El Chasquido del Mantón, 📍Ribera del Marlin, Sotogrande. 38€. Flamenco performed at floor level with the audience gathered round rather than seated in rows: the Sánchez sisters, Lidia and Esther, with Jesús Piña on guitar, built around the castanets and the shawl. Not many places either way, so booking ahead matters. This was on the Radar last week.

📍Starlite Occident, Marbella. Doors at 20:00, shows from around 22:00.

Worth getting in the diary now. Some of these sell out, and some are free but fill up, which amounts to the same thing on the night.

Thu 30 July, 21:30 · El Rey León, Tributo Musical, 📍Parque de Los Niños. Free. A free family show in the park: live music, dancing and costume, working through the songs everyone knows from the story of the lion cub who has to grow up and take his place. Free entry until the park is full, so early is better than punctual. It lands the same day as the next letter, but a week's notice seemed more use to anyone with children or grandchildren to entertain.

Fri 31 July, 21:00 · Fiesta de la Luna Llena, 📍Paseo Marítimo de Sabinillas. Free. The full-moon party on the Sabinillas seafront: aerial acrobatics, street performers, a pasacalles, a balancing act, an esoteric market, live music and a DJ, all of it against the sea. White is the suggested dress. One of the more distinctive nights of the Manilva summer, and the sort of thing worth blocking out an evening for now rather than discovering the morning after.

Sat 1 Aug, 20:45 · La Movida Flamenca, 📍Parque El Ángel. Free.
A free flamenco festival in the park, directed by the Estepona guitarist Daniel Casares with Javier Ojeda of Danza Invisible. Zenet, Felipa del Moreno, Gaspar and Jassy Ojeda on the bill. The town's free concerts draw well, and this is a strong line-up even by that standard, so plan on arriving early if you want to sit.

Sat 1 Aug, 18:00 · Bella Festival · Marbella. From 39,99€.
The fourth edition of the Spanish indie festival, at the 📍OMA Sound site in Marbella. Live bands and DJs into the small hours. This one does sell.

That is your week, and it leans hard towards the stage: an opera and a zarzuela in the bullring, flamenco on two nights, and more Cuban jazz than most weeks manage.

One correction from last week. The Festival del Arte Ecuestre at the bullring, which I listed for Sunday the 19th, was moved at short notice. It clashed with the World Cup final, which in hindsight was never going to be a fair fight. The new date is Saturday 29 August at 22:00, and tickets bought for the original date stay valid with nothing further to do. I will flag it again nearer the time.

Something has stuck with me from writing the bit about the old football ground further up. The new stadium is better in every way you could measure, and people still turn out for the old one. That is not really about football.

Estepona has changed a great deal in ten or fifteen years, and mostly for the better: the flower streets, the promenade, the murals, a town that clearly decided not to stand still. But every year a few of the old places go too. A chiringuito becomes a beach club, a tapas bar becomes something with fancier coffee and higher prices.

So a question, and it is a nosy one. Which place around here would you not want to lose? The bar, the restaurant, the shop, the corner of the beach that would take something out of the town with it if it went. Name it and tell me why, one line is plenty. I will not print anything without asking first.

See you next Thursday.
Stefan