Design, quality and good times
For several months, a lovely market has been organized on Saturday mornings in the Plaza del Dos de Mayo (Plaza 2nd of October): the Dosde Market. It’s become a meeting point for designers from the neighborhood and of “product of design, quality and good taste,” according to their website. They aren’t without reason. In the little stands set up by the designers, you can find beautiful pendants, clothes, accessories, stationary and gifts, for the most part.
Don’t just go to the market, but go, chat with the people (workers and shoppers alike), and buy something. Make sure to grab the contact cards of the designers in order to follow them on the internet, where they generally sell more products, organize meetings, interact with their fans and all of those types of things the 2.0 generation does on the internet.
In the area surrounding those stands, you can find some antiques and collectors items, similar to those traditionally found in the rastro. Here they’re less common and at more reasonable prices.
This market gives the plaza a renewed atmosphere. The plaza Dosde (Madrileño slang for Plaza Dos de Mayo (the 2nd of May)) tends to be the center of all the nightlife in the famous Malasaña neighborhood. During the night you can find massive botellones (outdoor drinking parties). The riot police had to interrupt the 2007 neighborhood festival because there were fights and, from that point forward, it’s been a police parking lot at night to make sure no one causes trouble on the streets.
Thanks to the police presence, things are much better and the plaza has recovered what it once had. Saturday mornings are particularly nice, but it’s also a good place to have a drink or grab a bite to eat during all days of the week, at any hour of the day or night. If the terraces are full (which is normally the case), you can just plop yourself down in the plaza and wait for one of the many Chinese salespersons that roam the plaza to come by and sell you a beer for 1 Euro. There are always kids, dogs, teenagers, punks, moderns, couples, and a great atmosphere in the plaza Dosde.
Historically, the Plaza de Dos de Mayo is where the Madrileños rebelled against the French. Afterwards, it became the epicenter of the Madrid Movement in the 1980s.
