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Fall Culture Travel :: All the Arts in Madrid

You don't have to stay at home just because the leaves are changing. Follow along on our Fall Culture Map to discover what's happening this autumn.

While Americans fawn over events dedicated to cookie jars, butter sculptures and the art of sausage-making, a European festival needs some heft in order to distinguish itself in the culture glut of The Old World. Luckily Festival de Otoño (Autumn Festival) in Madrid has the stats to set it above the rest.

For five weeks every autumn, invited companies take the stage daily and nightly. This year's shows include 73 theatre, 21 dance, 13 music and 39 circus performances. The 28 international productions hail from world-renowned companies from a host of European countries, the United States, South America and Asia. To find that kind of diversity stateside, you'd have to ride "It's a Small World" at Disneyland.

La Comédie-Française, which claims the title of the western world's oldest theater company, just wrapped the first Spanish performance of Molière's Le Misanthrope. And while it's too late to catch the French comedy of manners, ¡Piratas, Piratas! might be more fun anyway: 60 acrobats from Mongolia, Russia, India, Malaysia and China flip and fly in a Cirque-like battle between good and bad pirates.

Now in its 24th year, the Autumn Festival started October 15 and lasts until November 18.

Related Stories:
· Festival de Otoño [Official Site]
· Fall Culture Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Fall Culture Travel Map [Jaunted]