'Beat the heat': Madrid looks to cool off with culture amid climate crisis

Initiative aims to coax visitors and local people into air-conditioned venues during sweltering summer afternoonsA little after 3pm on weekday afternoon, the footsteps and voices that echoed along the hallowed halls of the Prado were silenced by a series of percussive detonations that could have been mistaken for an indoor fireworks display.The source of the disruption, however, was not a vandal or a protester. Watched over by the eight muses for whom the Madrid museum's Sala de las Musas is named, a tall, famous and angular flamenco dancer called El Yiyo was clicking, clapping, stomping and pirouetting before a rapt, grateful and slightly bemused audience. A few feet away sat the renowned guitarist Rafael Andújar, who had ambled into the sala a few moments earlier, taken his seat and begun to fill the air with notes. Continue reading...