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August is the month Barcelona belongs to its visitors. Shutters come down across entire blocks, neighborhood bars tape up handwritten notes about reopening in September, and the residents who can leave, leave. What stays behind is heat that sits in the narrow streets of the old town long after sunset, and a center working at ful capacity. The practical consequence is a shift in the clock. Between noon and six, the city is hard work: the Gothic Quarter is crowded, the lines at the main sights are long, and walking anywhere costs more than it gives. From eight onward, Barcelona becomes usable again. Terraces fil , museums with late openings turn pleasant instead of packed, and the hil of Montjuïc — higher and greener than the seafront, and several degrees cooler — becomes the sensible place to spend an evening. Montjuïc also holds much of the city’s cultural program: the MNAC, the Fundació Joan Miró, the gardens, the Magic Fountain. Inside Poble Espanyol, a flamenco dinner show in Barcelona has been running since 1988. In 1929, during the International Exposition, a teenage dancer from the Somorrostro — the shantytown that stood on Barcelona’s waterfront until the city cleared it decades later — performed at Poble Espanyol for King Alfonso XIII. Her name was Carmen Amaya. The tablao carries it. The stage sits close enough to the tables that dinner and show run together rather than as two separate acts. There are two seatings a day: doors at 6:00 pm with the show starting at 6:45, or doors at 8:30 pm with the show at 9:15. Either way, it’s indoors and air-conditioned, which in mid-August matters more than it sounds like it should. The show is staged by the venue’s own flamenco company, dancers, guitarists, and singers, rather than a touring act passing through, and the stage sits close enough to the tables that dinner and the performance run together rather than as two separate acts. There are two seatings a day: doors at 6:00 pm with the show starting at 6:45, or doors at 8:30 pm with the show at 9:15. It al happens indoors, under air conditioning, which in mid-August is not a minor detail. The Tablao de Carmen, up on Montjuïc, is one way to close out the day: dinner and flamenco running together in a room that’s been doing this since 1988.
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