adminFrom the Editor
Something rather large has just landed in Benidorm — and we don’t mean the hen party from Wolverhampton, though they’re very welcome too. This week we’ve got a genuine headline: a brand-new outdoor mega-venue that could change the shape of a Benidorm summer entirely. The weather is playing ball, Saturday the 23rd is shaping up to be one of the busiest days of the month, and we’ve got answers to a couple of questions that seem to be filling up the forums right now. Settle in — this is a good one.
Lead Story
Benidorm’s Biggest Summer Yet: Meet SkyFest
A 14,000 square metre outdoor events complex has just been unveiled — and it may well be the reason to finally commit to that summer trip.
Benidorm has never been short of things to do, but even by its own considerable standards, this week’s announcement is something. SkyFest — a colossal new outdoor venue at Guillermo Amor Sports City in the Foietes-Colonia Madrid area — has officially been unveiled, and organisers are expecting more than 200,000 visitors through its gates between June and September.
The numbers are, frankly, impressive. The complex covers 14,000 square metres, accommodates up to 25,000 people for major concerts, and has been built out with two stages, over 100 metres of bar service, VIP terraces, shaded cooling zones, and more than 100 bathroom cabins — with water connections, because somebody clearly thought this through. It opens on Saturday 28 June with a charity concert supporting the Centro Doble Amor association.
The programme runs all the way through to September. Confirmed events include Latin Fest (4–5 July), a Chayanne concert (24 July), DJ Symphonic (21 August), comedy performances, family musicals including Tarzan and The Sound of Music, and a screening of the World Cup final on 19 July. No pressure, England.
What this means for you
- If you’re planning a summer visit, it’s worth checking SkyFest’s programme before you fix your dates — several events will sell fast.
- The venue is in the Foietes-Colonia Madrid area, a short taxi ride from the main strip.
- The family musical programme makes this a genuine option for visitors travelling with children.
What’s On This Week
A quieter start to the week gives way to a very busy weekend — Saturday 23 May in particular is the kind of day that makes you wish you’d booked a longer stay.
📅 Saturday 17 May
Benidorm International Soul Fiesta — Final Day
Gran Hotel Bali | Ticketed (festival wristband)
Ten years. Four rooms. Twenty-five DJs. The Northern Soul weekender that has become a Benidorm institution wraps its 10th anniversary edition today, with poolside sessions, allnighters, and the Cotton Club room going until the very end. If you’re already in resort and haven’t yet stuck your head in, the closing sessions are still open — and a decade of rare soul deserves a proper send-off.
📅 Saturday 23 May
Iberia Festival — El Drogas
Auditorio Julio Iglesias, Calle Primavera | Ticketed
Fifteen years old and still going strong, the Iberia Festival brings Spanish rock and pop to Benidorm’s magnificent open-air auditorium. El Drogas headlines from 3:30pm — which means an afternoon of live music in the sunshine, with the evening still entirely ahead of you. For anyone who’s heard one too many Abba tributes this holiday, this is the palate cleanser you didn’t know you needed.
📅 Saturday 23 – Sunday 24 May
Rugby Sevens Benidorm — 39th Edition
Estadio de Rugby de Villajoyosa | Ticketed
One of Europe’s longest-running sevens tournaments returns for its 39th year, drawing international teams and a very enthusiastic following. It’s family-friendly, properly sporting, and set under the kind of May sunshine that makes everything feel slightly more dramatic than it probably is. British clubs and supporters have been combining this with a holiday for decades — if you’re in resort this weekend, it’s well worth the trip.
Coming Up: Dark City Fest arrives at Sala Penélope on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 May — gothic rock, post-punk and dark wave, second edition, doors at 6pm. Not every Benidorm night ends with a singalong. We respect that.
Tonight’s Entertainment
Five hundred performances a night. Benidorm does not, by any stretch, have a shortage of things to do after dark.
🎭 Elements — Benidorm Palace
Nightly 17–24 May | Dinner from 20:30; Show 22:15 (Tues, Thurs, Fri) or 22:30 (Sat)
If you’re going to do one proper big night out this trip, make it Benidorm Palace. Their new headline production, ELEMENTS, is a full sensory spectacular — fire, water, earth and air, anchored by Arché, an AI character who guides you through some genuinely impressive immersive staging with a world-class international cast. It’s a West End-quality show at a fraction of what you’d pay in London: from €36 for the show alone, up to €100 for the full dinner and backstage tour package. Book ahead rather than hoping for the door.
🎭 Tribute Acts, Cabaret & Comedy — All Over the Resort
Nightly | English Zone and Old Town, various venues | Mostly free
Here’s something that genuinely surprises first-timers: you could spend a full week in Benidorm without seeing the same act twice and without paying a cover charge. Tribute bands, drag performances, comedy nights, hypnotists, quiz evenings, karaoke, bingo — all of it, every night, across dozens of venues. There is no planning required. Walk in, find a seat, and let Benidorm do what it does best.
🎭 El Drogas / Iberia Festival
Saturday 23 May | 15:30 | Auditorio Julio Iglesias | Ticketed
Worth a second mention: an outdoor afternoon rock show in 23-degree sunshine is, by any reasonable measure, an excellent way to spend a Saturday. The evening remains entirely free afterwards, which is a very good position to be in.
One for the diary — Dark City Fest, Sala Penélope, 29–30 May. Gothic rock and dark wave in one of Benidorm’s most storied venues. Ticketed.
☀️ Weather Watch — May 2026
The second half of May is doing exactly what you want it to do. Reliably warm, mostly sunny, and with barely a rainy day in sight for the remainder of the month. The sea is sitting at 19°C — genuinely swimmable, no sharp intake of breath required.
Highs: 23°C Lows: 16°C Sun: ~10 hrs/day
Rain days: ~2 this month Sea: 19°C
What to pack: Light cotton for the days, a cardigan or thin layer for evenings (it does cool off once the sun drops), and high-factor sun cream — the UV index is sitting at 8, classed as Very High, and British skin in late-May Spanish sunshine has a tendency to make its feelings known. Add sunglasses, a hat, and swimwear. The sea is warm enough. Go in.
❓ You Asked…
Q: With all those police raids in the English Zone, is it still safe to go out at night?
In short — yes, and arguably safer than before. The operation that led to 80 arrests for drug trafficking targeted specific bars whose operators had been running criminal enterprises behind closed doors, some literally using walkie-talkies and lookouts to evade police. Fresh raids on 8 May continued that work. None of this is aimed at ordinary visitors having a drink and a dance — it’s a sustained effort to remove criminal actors from the nightlife scene, and the industry has broadly welcomed it. A new Benidorm Nightlife Association has just launched, working with UK and international partners to raise safety and standards across the resort. The message from regular visitors is consistent: the crackdown is a good thing, and the places affected are ones you’d have been advised to avoid in any case.
Q: Londres Street is closed — will it affect getting to my hotel?
It might, depending on where you’re staying. Londres Street has been closed to vehicles since 29 April for hydraulic infrastructure works and is not expected to reopen before late June. If you’re arriving by taxi or transfer, your driver will know the alternative routes — but it’s worth contacting your hotel directly about the best drop-off point before you arrive. The park-and-ride on Juan Fuster Zaragoza Avenue has also recently reopened following its own improvements, which helps if you’re driving. Nothing to worry about, but far better to know in advance than to discover it on a warm afternoon with a full suitcase.
🔥 Hot Topic
Is Benidorm Cleaning Up Its Act?
Two stories landed in the same week, and together they say something. Eighty arrests for drug trafficking in the English Zone, and a simultaneous council campaign to remove sexually explicit, racist and homophobic merchandise from shop windows — both happening at once, both aimed squarely at the resort’s image ahead of the summer peak.
Benidorm has never pretended to be Monte Carlo, and its charm is partly in its cheerful disregard for pretension. But there is a difference between lively and lawless, between cheeky and actively unpleasant — and it seems the people who run the place have decided which side of that line they’d prefer to be on. Whether a council inspector removing a questionable T-shirt from a shop window counts as meaningful reform is perhaps a question for another occasion. The 80 arrests are rather more substantive.
The overall picture: Benidorm is still Benidorm. It’s simply doing a bit of tidying before the guests arrive. Hard to argue with that.
💡 Tip of the Week
Cash, Card — or Both?
The forums never quite reach agreement on this one, so here’s the honest answer. Cards are accepted almost everywhere in Benidorm — restaurants, bars, shops, entertainment venues. But smaller beach bars, market stalls, and the occasional old-school café still prefer cash, and a handful of places won’t take cards at all. The sensible approach is a moderate amount of euros alongside your card — enough to cover a round and a market browse without needing to locate a cashpoint at midnight. You don’t need a wallet stuffed with notes. You also don’t want to rely entirely on tap-and-go. A sensible mixture, as with most things in life, works best.
🤔 Did You Know?
Benidorm is now on Roblox. Launched on 7 May, Benidorm Fun Town Tycoon makes the resort the first European city — and only the third destination in the world, after Singapore and Tokyo — to have its own dedicated game on the platform. Players build a sustainable skyscraper guided by a character called Captain Pedro Z, completing missions tied to real Benidorm locations. The platform has 150 million daily players, most of them considerably younger than the average visitor to the Levante. But it’s a genuinely clever piece of long-game tourism marketing: today’s eleven-year-old constructing a virtual poolside complex is tomorrow’s holidaymaker booking the real thing. Captain Pedro Z is playing the long game.
Community Noticeboard
⭐ Soul Fiesta final day — Saturday 17 May at Gran Hotel Bali. The closing sessions are still open to anyone in resort. Ten years of Northern Soul in Benidorm deserves a proper farewell.
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That’s your lot for this week — a new mega-venue, a bumper Saturday, some genuinely good weather, and the reassurance that the English Zone is, if anything, more orderly than it was a fortnight ago. Next week we’ll have more on the summer season as it takes shape, and a closer look at what SkyFest’s opening programme has in store.
Thanks for reading. Pass it on to anyone with Benidorm on their mind.
Until next time — keep the sun on your face and the sangria cold. ☀️
— The Benidorm Bulletin Team
