Shakira’s Madrid residency doesn’t start until Friday, Sept. 18, but the real headline is what’s being built around it. Macondo Park opens that same day at Iberdrola Music, a 150,000-square-meter cultural complex with room for 50,000 people. It stays open across all twelve concert dates through Oct. 3, running 3:30 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. daily, with Shakira performing 8:30 to 11:00 p.m.
The park is organized into eight pavilions covering literature, fashion, gastronomy, live music, plus a Shakira museum, video-set recreations and a kids’area called Macondito. The name is a direct nod to Gabriel García Márquez’s fictional town in One Hundred Years of Solitude, and organizers secured an authorized immersive space tied to it. Chef Rafa Zafra curated the food lineup, photographer Jaume de Laiguana led the museum, and Shakira’s sons Milan and Sasha helped design the kids’zone. There’s also a karaoke experience with a round-the-world trip as the prize.
The logistics are just as big as the concept: 16 months of planning, roughly 10,000 people involved, and about 1,000 workers on site every night. Pino Sagliocco, president of Live Nation Spain, says Spanish-language music has broken barriers. Macondo Park is the argument in physical form. Concert dates are Sept. 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 and Oct. 1, 2 and 3.
Which pavilion would you hit first?
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Local Lawton
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