GlynAugust in the Old Town isn’t the month for grand plans. It’s hot, the streets are busy by nine in the evening, and the sensible approach is working out what’s worth leaving the shade for.
There are three things this month I’d genuinely put in the diary. After that, it’s a question of which bar you fancy.
The last Concerts al Castell, and it’s The Beatles
Wednesday 19 August, from 9.30pm. Plaça del Castell. Free.
The council’s summer concert series closes with Lady Liverpool, a Beatles tribute act, up at the castle lookout.
The music is beside the point, if I’m honest. The setting is what makes it. You’re at the top of the Old Town with the sea on three sides and the whole bay lit up behind the stage. It costs nothing, it’s a five-minute walk from most of the Old Town, and it’s the last one of the year.
Go early if you want to sit down. The lookout is not large and half of Benidorm has worked this out already.
Open-air cinema on the Mal Pas
Between 7 and 21 August. Playa del Mal Pas.
Cine en la Playa returns to the little beach below the Old Town, the one tucked round past the castle steps rather than the long stretch of Levante.
The council has confirmed the dates but hasn’t yet published the films or the start times. It’s described as two nights rather than a fortnight of screenings, so the likelihood is two dates within that window rather than something running nightly. Worth watching the council’s listings if this appeals, and worth checking on the day rather than turning up hopefully with a towel.
If you don’t know the Mal Pas, it’s covered in our piece on Benidorm’s Blue Flag beaches.
The L’Illa to Port swim
Sunday 30 August, morning. Club Náutico, Paseo Colón.
Swimmers cross from the island to the port. Entries open on Monday 3 August at 9am and close when the places are gone, which historically doesn’t take long.
You don’t have to swim it to enjoy it. It’s a good excuse to be up and out early on a Sunday, when the Old Town is at its best and briefly belongs to the people who live here.
Verbenas up at the Castillo
Saturday 8 and Saturday 15 August. Plaça del Castell. Times not published.
Two verbenas this month, run by the Asociación de Peñas and the Cofradía de Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza. These aren’t tourist events. They’re local fundraisers for the Festes Majors Patronals in November, which is precisely what makes them worth going to: live music, montaditos and drinks at sensible prices, and a crowd that mostly lives here.
A note on the dates. The council’s 2026 fiesta calendar confirms both verbenas are happening in August but doesn’t publish the days, and the dates above come from the tourist board’s listing. Nobody has announced a start time. Ask in the Old Town or check the boards nearer the day before you plan an evening around it.
Where the entertainment actually is
The honest position: the big production shows are down in the New Town. The Old Town’s evening entertainment is smaller, closer and cheaper, and to my mind rather more fun.
A few that are worth your evening:
- Kaffe Klee, for drag cabaret in a room small enough that you can’t hide at the back
- The Pig and Whistle, if you want live music and a proper pub rather than a themed one
- Jolly Roger, which does what it does without pretending otherwise
- Ku Lounge, for a quieter start to the evening before the streets fill up
Line-ups change constantly and none of these publish a reliable schedule in advance. The Old Town way is to walk the streets around Plaça de la Constitució after about nine and read the boards outside. That’s not me being unhelpful, it’s genuinely how it works.
And if you fancy venturing into the New Town
If you want the full sequinned production number, that’s a walk or a short taxi along the front. The showbar strip is where the big rooms are, and there’s no point pretending the Old Town competes on that.
Our advice is to make it a deliberate evening rather than a drift. Eat in the Old Town, walk down for the show, come back up for a last drink somewhere that isn’t playing to a crowd of four hundred.
While you’re up by the castle
The San Jaime church sits on Plaça de Castelar, a minute from the castle lookout, and is worth ten minutes in the cool before the evening starts. It also hosts recitals in the international organ festival across the year, though no August date has been published at the time of writing.
A word of caution. Dates, times and line-ups in Benidorm change, sometimes at short notice and occasionally on the day itself. Everything above was checked against the organiser’s own listing before publication, but programmes get moved, acts drop out and venues change their minds. Please confirm with the venue or organiser before you build an evening around any of it. If you find something here is out of date, tell us and we’ll correct it.
I’ll start this one off myself.
Whatever I plan, the first evening always goes the same way. I mean to try somewhere new, and I end up doing a slow lap of the back streets and drinking somewhere I’ve been a dozen times before. Not adventurous, but it’s the bit I miss most when I’m home.
Two things I’d genuinely like to know from anyone who’s been recently.
Where do you always end up on your first night? And has anybody actually been to one of the verbenas up at the Castillo? Nobody will publish a start time, so if you know roughly when they get going, say so below and I’ll add it to the post.