Madrid’s vibrant cultural life ground to an unprecedented halt over the past few months. The City Council wants the applause that we stopped hearing to ring out again this summer, and for the people of Madrid to enjoy our city’s wide range of cultural and leisure offerings once more. That’s why we couldn't fail to honour our commitment to holding the Veranos de la Verano Festival again in 2020, which marks the event’s thirty-sixth edition.

Like the city itself, Veranos de la Villa has evolved and changed over its three decades of life. This edition has been adapted to the current circumstances, and the programme will be held entirely at Conde Duque Cultural Centre. The iconic venue, which hosted the summer festival’s concerts for years, will thus regain its status as the event's hub. Its particular characteristics enable performances to be held in compliance with all necessary safety measures for audiences and workers alike.

At this edition, our programme invites you on a journey tailored to our present reality, a journey that is committed to cultural diversity among our creators and stresses the importance of relationships that forge links between generations, styles, migrations and citizens. We want to join you in celebrating Madrid’s tangible and intangible heritage and how it influences the artistic creation of today, which will become our future heritage. Although the pace of life seems to slow when the temperatures rise, our city is always vibrant, liveable, welcoming and, above all, full of culture.

Over one month, Conde Duque’s geometric spaces will host music, dance, theatre, zarzuela, film, journeys to the past and astronomy, with 22 cultural events that will turn Veranos de la Villa into a thread that connects the Spanish Golden Age to the latest electronic music, celebrating our roots and fusing them with the present while offering a way to enjoy this summer, which is sure to be different to those of years gone by.

I would like to thank citizens, City Council staff and the city’s cultural fabric for the major effort they have made to serve the common good in the past few months. That’s why this edition will be dedicated to all of them, with the theme “Thank you, Madrid”. All that remains is to invite you to enjoy the programme of this new instalment of Veranos de la Villa, and to be part of the recovery of Madrid’s cultural life. We’ll see each other under the stars.