How to talk to us

A barrel-organ player seen from behind, playing in the street at El Rastro de Madrid

Write to us for any of these reasons. A person reads it and we answer.

In person, that is what a market is for

The ordinance sets El Rastro's hours in its article 18 and they have not changed since the year 2000.

Days

SunSundays and holidays

Hours

9 to 3under article 18

Setting up

8 to 9before opening

Packing up

3 to 4and off home

Walking down Ribera de Curtidores, which is where half the market is: 651 of its 2,186 stalls. You will know us because we are the only ones watching the street numbers instead of the goods.

If you are on the notices list

Reply to any email we have sent you. It reaches us, and it reaches us with context, which beats a blank form. If you are not on it, you can sign up from the home page: it is double opt-in and it is not used for anything else.

If you want to advertise or propose something

Right now this site carries no advertising of any kind: no banners, no paid links, no featured listings. But if you have a stall, a shop or an arcade on these streets and you want to reach the people who come to El Rastro de Madrid, that is a conversation we are interested in having.

Say so through the form by ticking I want to advertise and tell us what you have in mind. One condition that is not up for negotiation: nothing paid will ever change a figure, a name or the order of a list. The data is the city's and it stays as it is.

And if yours is not about buying space but about doing something together, tick Marketing or a collaboration: a traders' association, a magazine, someone who photographs the market, someone researching its history, someone who wants to use this data for something else. We listen to all of it.

What we cannot do

Said up front, to save you the trip.

We do not hand out stalls, and we keep no waiting list

Stalls are allocated by the Centro district council, and article 17 of the ordinance says vacancies go to a public draw. What we can do is tell you what it costs and when you can object. See the rules.

We do not value anything

Not your watch, not your grandmother's cutlery, not that figurine. We are not antique dealers or appraisers. What we have is the list of premises the city classifies as collectibles, in case it helps you ask in the right place. The 119 premises.

We are not the city council

This is not a city service and has nothing to do with the district council. We use their open data, which is a different thing. For any paperwork you have to go to them.

We do not know whether a particular stall will be there on Sunday

The register says what is authorized, not who sets up each week. And the plan comes from 2022 cartography: the whole of Sector F moved with the rebuilding of Plaza del General Vara del Rey and is still drawn where it was. See the map and the warning.

We have no lost property

Not El Rastro's and not anyone else's. That is the city's business.

And one thing we can

If you work in the market, have a shop on these streets or have been coming for years, you know things no city dataset holds: which sector moved and where to, which stall has been on the same corner for forty years, what the register says that looks nothing like reality. That is what this site is missing and cannot download. Tell us.