The Beatles at Las Ventas, Madrid, 2 July 1965

Las Ventas is Madrid's main bullring, at Calle de Alcalá 237. On 2 July 1965 the Beatles played there, the first of the only two concerts they ever gave in Spain. A little over 10,000 people came, leaving the ring roughly half empty. The 1931 building is still in use, and no Beatles plaque or marker has been recorded there.

A bullring built in 1931

Las Ventas opened in 1931 to a design by José Espeliú. With 23,798 seats it is the largest bullring in Spain, and it has been protected as a Bien de Interés Cultural since 1994. Besides bullfights it has long been rented for concerts, so the ring where the Beatles played is the same one on Calle de Alcalá today.

How Franco's Spain got the Beatles

The booking came through Francisco Bermúdez, a Madrid agent who managed the singer Raphael. He met Brian Epstein at the Seville Fair and agreed two dates: Madrid on 2 July and La Monumental in Barcelona the next day. The Beatles never played Spain again.

The band stayed at the Hotel Fénix on Plaza de Colón. The press conference there was open only to accredited journalists.

A half-full ring

Spanish reports put the crowd at a little over 10,000, in a ring built for more than twice that. Ticket prices kept many away. The cheapest seats cost 75 pesetas; sources give the top price as 450 pesetas (Libertad Digital, Rock FM) or 400 (El Español). Plenty of young fans stayed outside the gates.

Security was heavy. People were searched at the gates, and one critic wrote that there were enough police inside to take Gibraltar.

The show

The presenter Torrebruno introduced the evening. Los Pekenikes and the singer Michel were among the support acts. The Beatles played 12 songs in about half an hour and finished with Long Tall Sally, with no encore. Accounts disagree on timing: some chronologies give 20:30 as the start, while El Español puts the Beatles on stage at 22:10, which may be the start of their own set rather than the whole show.

NO-DO, the state newsreel, filmed the concert.

No plaque at the bullring

No Beatles plaque or marker has been recorded at Las Ventas. Reports of the 50th anniversary in 2015 describe tribute concerts on 2 and 3 July, with The Bootleg Beatles and Los Pekenikes, but no plaque, and the 60th-anniversary coverage in 2025 mentions none either.

Other Beatles-related places in Spain include the John Lennon statue in Almería, the Casa del Cine, the house where Lennon stayed in Almería, and the Plaça de John Lennon in Barcelona.