A few cooler days have slipped in between two waves of heat, and around here cooler is a relative word: high twenties now, before it climbs back towards the mid-thirties on Sunday and holds there. So take the week the way the locals do. Use the mornings, retreat indoors through the worst of the afternoon, and let the evenings and the sea breeze do the rest. Keep the water bottle close.

It is feria season, and there is plenty on with something for every taste. As this lands, Casares throws open its fair, spread through the streets of the old town rather than penned onto a fairground, and next week Manilva takes its turn.

This is also a full-moon weekend, and both Sabinillas and Estepona mark it, with a white-clad beach party on the Friday and a neighbourhood verbena the night after. Add flamenco, summer cinema and live music every single night.

One to carry with you as you go: the Plaza del Reloj takes its name from the tower that watches over it, yet almost nobody stops to count. How many clocks does the Torre del Reloj actually have? The answer, and it is not one, is waiting further down.

Feria season lands in force this week, and the two on our doorstep could hardly be more different. Between them they cover the whole range, from an intimate village fair to a six-day marquee marathon, so pick your night accordingly.

📅 Thu 30 to Sun 2 Aug, 📍Casares Old Town
This is the one to see if you have never been. Casares does not corral its fair onto a purpose-built ground: the rides, stalls and stages thread through the streets of the historic centre itself, from El Llano up towards Peñón Rodao, among the whitewashed houses.

It makes for a tighter, more village feel than the big coastal ferias, and it is why the organisers tell you to wear comfortable shoes and leave time to walk in. Musically, Friday brings three faces from the hit series La Reina del Flow, and Saturday headlines with the singer Merche. The advertised municipal concerts are free, and you can read the full programme before you go.

Tue 4 to Sun 9 Aug, 📍Recinto Ferial
Manilva's is the big one, six days rather than four, built around the fairground and its marquees. It opens quietly on the Tuesday with a dinner for the town's senior residents, and the lights go on Wednesday night.

From there the Municipal marquee runs orchestras and dancing nightly, while a younger crowd fills the youth tent until the early hours. It closes on the Sunday with a parade of floats winding through El Castillo de la Duquesa and Sabinillas. You have the full week to pace yourself, and the full day-by-day line-up is worth a look first.

Beyond the two ferias, the week is generous. A free open-air family show to start it off, a full moon marked on two nights, flamenco under the stars, an evening of zarzuela and a film in the botanical garden. Something for slow afternoons and long evenings alike, roughly in the order it happens.

Thu 30, 21:30 · El Rey León, Tributo Musical, 📍Parque de Los Niños. Free. The town's summer programme puts on an open-air musical tribute to a story most families know by heart, with live singing, choreography and costume built to carry the little ones off to the savannah for a night. It is on tonight, as this email lands, and pitched at all ages, which is rarer than it sounds around here. Entry is free until the park is full, so go early and let the children get near the front.

Fri 31, 21:00 · Fiesta de la Luna Llena, 📍Paseo Marítimo Sabinillas. Free. One of the highlights of the Sabinillas summer, second only to San Juan. The seafront fills for a full-moon night of aerial acrobatics, pasacalles, a balancing act, an esoteric market, live music and a DJ, all with the sea as backdrop. Everyone comes dressed in white, which is what gives the evening its particular glow, and there is local Manilva wine to be had along the front. Wear white, arrive as the light goes, and stay for the moon.

Fri 31, 21:00 · International Show Edition 2, 📍Amigos del Puerto. 8€. A second edition of this variety evening, a mix of music and performance served up beside the water at Estepona's port. Tables are by reservation, so book if you want to eat with the show.

Sat 1 Aug, 21:00 · Verbena Luna de Remedios, 📍Plaza San Francisco. Free. The Hermandad de Santa María de los Remedios throws its full-moon verbena, a proper neighbourhood night in the square with three acts across the evening: Miguel López live, DJ Jossan, and El Minigrupo del Sheriff. The kind of gathering that runs on good humour and warm nights rather than a big billing.

Sun 2 Aug, 21:00 · Gran Noche de la Zarzuela, 📍Plaza del Reloj. Free. The Banda Municipal's fourth summer concert, an all-zarzuela programme in the open air at the Plaza del Reloj. Expect favourites like Katiuska and El huésped del sevillano, closing, as every one of these concerts does, with the Himno de Estepona. A gentle, characterful Sunday evening under the clock tower.

Mon 3 Aug, 11:00 · AREME Coffee Morning, 📍Rick's Café Puerto. Free. The Foreign Residents Association's relaxed get-together, coffee, conversation and a board game on the side. An easy way to meet people if you are new to the area or just fancy the company.

Mon 3 Aug, 22:00 · Cine de Verano: Jurassic World: El Renacer, 📍Orchidarium. Free. The summer open-air cinema in the botanical garden, this week the latest Jurassic World under the palms. Turn up, find a spot and settle in. Bring something to sit on and a layer for later.

Some weeks the flamenco finds you whether you went looking or not, and this is one of them. Three separate evenings, from an intimate peña night to two open-air shows under the summer stars, two of them free. If you have been meaning to see a proper cuadro flamenco, pick a night.

Fri 31, 21:30 · Espectáculo flamenco, 📍Peña Flamenca de Estepona. 12€.
The town's flamenco club opens its doors for a full cuadro: Rocío López on cante, José Fernández on guitar, and Vanesa Ramírez and Curro Román on baile. The peña is where the art form lives closest to the bone here, a room of people who know their palos, so this is the most intimate of the week's three. Come for the real thing.

Sat 1 Aug, 20:45 · La Movida Flamenca III, 📍Parque del Ángel. Free.
The town's open-air flamenco festival returns for a third edition, and this year it is a proper bill: the singer Zenet headlines, with Felipa del Moreno, Gaspar Rodríguez and Jassy Ojeda alongside him. Zenet sits a little to the side of pure flamenco, closer to copla and jazz, which makes for a warmer, more song-led evening than a straight tablao. Free, outdoors, and the pick of the three if you want names on the stage.

Tue 4 Aug, 21:30 · Bailes de las Noches de Verano, 📍Plaza del Reloj. Free.
Another Tuesday, another instalment of the town's summer dance series, this week the Academia Sólo Flamenco under the direction of Ana Guerrero. A free flamenco night under the clock tower, one of many across the season.

Not everything runs to a start time. These are the things already under way that you can drop into when it suits, ordered by what closes first, so the ones near the top will not wait around much longer.

Ten more live sets once you set the flamenco aside, spread from the port across to the beach bars of Manilva. Covers bands, a bit of jazz, some rock and funk, and a South American act to open the weekend. Two of them land in daylight this week, an afternoon on the beach and a Sunday lunchtime at the marina, for anyone who would rather not wait for the heat to drop. Free unless noted.

Fri 31, 20:00 · Capullitas de Alelí, 📍Huber Art & Food. 15€.
South American music at Huber, which has quietly become one of the most dependable rooms in town for a proper booked act, week in, week out. This is a place that treats the music as the point of the evening, not the backdrop. Worth reserving a table.

Fri 31, 20:00 · Música en Vino, 📍Jazz Pub. Free.
Film music, jazz and pop classics over a glass of something. An easy, unhurried way into the weekend.

Fri 31, 23:30 · Children of Queen, 📍Louie Louie Live. Free.
A late-night set of rock and funk covers to take the Friday on past midnight. Free, loud and built for a room that wants to dance rather than sit.

Sat 1 Aug, afternoon · La Mala Hora, 📍Meollo Beach Bar, Manilva. Free.
A covers band running from the eighties to now, playing a beach-bar tardeo with DJ Pájaro alongside. Feet in the sand, drink in hand, music into the evening.

Sat 1 Aug, 21:00 · Fiesta del Verano, 📍Mi Caseta. Free.
A summer party night at Mi Caseta with Grupo Bumburay and Roberto Aragon on the bill. Free, and pitched exactly as the name suggests.

Sun 2 Aug, 14:00 · Diva & Sergio, 📍Amigos del Puerto, Estepona Marina. Free. A rare afternoon slot, and a Greek-themed one at that: sirtaki, sunshine and good vibes down at the marina. If you would rather hear your live music by daylight than late at night, this is the one. Tables by reservation.

Sun 2 Aug, 18:00 · Sláinte, 📍Rose & Thistle, Duquesa. Free.
Live music at the Rose & Thistle to round off the weekend, early enough to catch and still be home at a reasonable hour.

Tue 4 Aug, 20:00 · Paul Hull, 📍Roman Oasis, Manilva. 25€ (barbecue night).
Live music brings us out to the Roman Oasis, and if you have never made the trip, the venue is the reason to go as much as the music. Tucked in the valley below Manilva beside the river, it has been run by the same owner since 1983, which by their own account makes it about the oldest restaurant under its original owner on the whole coast. This one is a big barbecue night with Paul Hull playing, so 25€ gets you the food and the music together. Shaded terrace, cold drinks and a round of crazy golf if the mood takes you. Booking advised.

Tue 4 Aug, 21:00 · Sami James, 📍H10 Estepona Palace. Free.
An acoustic session at the H10, laid-back and easy on a Tuesday night.

Wed 5 Aug, 22:00 · Donovan Keith, 📍Louie Louie Live. 5€.
Louie Louie closes out the week's listings with a late set from Donovan Keith, and if you miss it, he is back the next night too.

And that is only the music with its own line. Both ferias run orchestras and DJs every night, Friday's full moon in Sabinillas comes with a live act and a DJ on the sand, and if it is flamenco you are after, the three nights are up in their own block above.

So, those clocks. The answer is three.

The tower is the oldest part of what was once the Iglesia de los Remedios, built in the sixteenth century after the Christian conquest, plain and square and looking more like a watchtower than a church. A sundial went up on its south face early on. Then, when the tower was restored back in 2004, a second, older sundial was uncovered beneath the layers, so the south face carries two, one with a semicircular dial and one rectangular, from the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Add the great mechanical clock installed inside in the early twentieth century, the one whose bells still mark the hours across the casco antiguo, and you have three timepieces on a single tower.

The church itself did not survive. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 wrecked it, and it was pulled down, leaving the tower standing alone as it does today. Next time you pass, look up at the south face and find both sundials before the bells give you the modern answer.

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.
‼️ Important: the Rastro does not run on Sunday 2 August, nor the following Sunday 9 August. The Feria de Manilva takes over the Recinto Ferial on both weekends, so the flea market pauses and will be back once the feria is over.

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 Still on.)

Marbella way, the big summer season is in full swing. One festival amphitheatre running most nights, an indie festival by the coast, and a one-off from a name you may know.

Sat 1 Aug, Bella Festival, 📍OMA Sound, Marbella. From 42,99€. The indie festival's fourth edition, an all-day and into-the-night bill of Spanish indie and pop with Lori Meyers, Sexy Zebras, Niña Polaca and Marlena among the names. A younger, festival-going crowd.

Wed 5 Aug, 20:00 · Kristina Orbakaité, 📍Palacio de Congresos Adolfo Suárez, Marbella. 79€. One of the biggest names in Russian pop, a singer and actress active since the eighties and twice named Russia's best-selling artist at the World Music Awards. Daughter of the Soviet icon Alla Pugacheva, she plays synthpop and ballads, and her Marbella show is squarely aimed at the coast's large Russian-speaking community. She sings in Russian.

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

Some of these sell out, and some are free but fill up, which amounts to the same thing on the night. Two to plan for now.

Fri 8 Aug · Flamenco with Chelo Soto, 📍Huber Art & Food. 20€.
The flamenco evening that slipped from July finally has a date, and it is a full cuadro: the cantaora Chelo Soto, with Carlos Haro Sánchez on guitar and El Lías on baile. Huber keeps its capacity small on purpose, so this is one to book rather than turn up for. They have flagged limited places.

Sat 15 Aug, 22:00 · Sergi Polo, English Stand-Up Comedy, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. 22€. A Barcelona comedian who built his name on the UK circuit, performing a full set in English, no translation needed. Worth flagging now because it is filling up: around two thirds gone, with mostly back rows and scattered singles left, so pairs and groups should not leave it late.

We are about halfway through it now, the summer, and you can feel it running at full tilt. The town is full, the beaches are full, the terraces are full. Everyone who came for the season is deep in the middle of it.

It cuts both ways, this time of year. For some it is long lunches and late swims and nowhere in particular to be. For others, the people pulling the drinks and turning the tables and keeping the kitchens going in this heat, it is the hardest stretch of the whole year. Same fortnight, two completely different summers. If you are on the easy side of that, a word of thanks to the ones who are not goes a long way. And nobody ever turned down a tip, either.

So take what this season offers, a fair, a full moon, a night of flamenco, and enjoy it. There is plenty of summer left.

See you next Thursday.
Stefan