Seville Entertainment

After youve spent the day sightseeing or checking out one of the citys parks, youll be wondering what Seville has to offerin the evening. Visitors who like to think of themselves as night owls will be at home here, as the city comes alive after dusk and its excellent selection of restaurants, bars and discotheques draw residents and visitors alike. Things dont generally get going until late and that applies to dining also; restaurants see their busiest periods after 21:00, while discos tend to fill up from midnight onwards.

Nightlife

Sevilles residents like to party and once the sun goes down youll see both the citys young and the mature crowd donning their best evening wear and heading out to indulge in the three Ds: dining, drinking and dancing. Seville offers a good selection of evening entertainment venues and whether its a candlelit dinner youre after or a night of hedonism, visitors will find venues to suit all tastes. For a quiet evening, head for the area around the cathedral, which is home to a variety of cafs and bars, and lends itself well to drinking and talking with friends and relatives. If you want to continue drinking late into the night then head from here to the streets in the vicinity of the Plaza de Armas. Marqus de Paradas, Julio Csar and Adriano are home to a selection of late night bars. For alternative bar venues and nightclubs, head for Betis and Alfalfa streets, where youll find the real party crowd.
In the summer season, the heat drives both visitors and residents to the open-air bars down by the river; with venues situated on both banks, there are plenty of places to cool off with a cold class of San Miguel.

Theatre and music

Sevilles cultural evening entertainment scene is impressive by all accounts, with a wide selection of venues offering live performances in areasincluding drama, dance and music. Head for venues such as Casa Anselma on Pags del Corro 49 and catch some of the citys finest flamenco or El Patio Sevillano on Paseo de Cristbal Coln 11, where performances in both Spanish folk song and dance can be seen every evening. Meanwhile, at Teatro de la Maestranza on Paseo de Coln 22, you can catch some of the finest opera the world has to offer, with classics such as Verdi's La Forza del Destino and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro regularly topping the bill. Teatro Lope de Vega, Teatro Central, Teatro Municipal Alameda and the Teatro Imperial are among the citys other live performance venues and between them they present a wide variety of theatrical styles.

Festivals

There are a number of annual summer festivals that are unique to the city, with highlights including:

• Cristo de la Expiracion, held nine days before Palm Sunday, this is one of the liveliest festivals in Andalucia. Expect lots of noise from shotguns, rockets and firecrackers as people take to the streets for a day of revelry (March).
• The Feria de Abril (April Fair) is a celebration of the citys strong ties with the Andalucian countryside and sees the locals get dressed up in traditional costume and take to the streets for a procession that ends in the village of Almonte, Huelva (April).
• Festival Internacional de Teatro y Danza sees performers from internationally renowned companies arrive in the city to showcase their talents at Sevilles prestigious Teatro de la Maestranza (May).
• The Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen sees the citys residents honour the Virgin Mary with various regattas, sporting events and festivities.