How the chimes and the grapes work

The Turismo de Madrid New Year's Eve page (updated 1 June 2026) lists the celebration for 31 December 2026 at 00:00, free of charge, and explains the clock's sequence:

  1. Just before midnight, a carillon plays.
  2. Next come four quarter-chimes. These are not the grapes.
  3. Then come the twelve chimes of midnight. Eat one grape with each.

The twelve chimes are deliberately spaced out, the page says, so that people do not choke on the grapes. The most common mistake is starting on the quarter-chimes and running out of grapes before midnight. Wait for the quarters to finish.

Bring your own grapes. Seedless or peeled grapes are easier to swallow at the pace of the chimes; that is our suggestion, not an official rule.

The Preuvas on 30 December

The day before, Sol holds a rehearsal known as the Preuvas, listed for 30 December in the Turismo de Madrid event calendar. Neither page gives a time. If you have plans elsewhere on the night itself, the Preuvas give you the same ritual a day early; the official pages do not say how crowd arrangements differ from the 31st.

Access, capacity and Metro closures: not yet published

This is the part travellers most need, and it is not available yet. On 30 October 2026:

  • The Turismo de Madrid event page described the square as drawing "thousands of people" but gave no capacity figure, access points, security checks or list of banned items.
  • The same page listed nearby stations without saying whether any will close or change hours that night.
  • The city's official Christmas site, navidadmadrid.com, carried the heading "Programa de Navidad 2026" and said the complete programme will be available from 18 November.
  • The Metro de Madrid notices page could not be opened when we checked.

We are not repeating arrangements from previous years as if they applied to 2026. Check navidadmadrid.com after 18 November, and Metro de Madrid's service notices and the city's @MADRID account in the last week of December.

Plaza Mayor De Madrid

Getting there and away

The event page lists four Metro stations around the square:

Station Lines Use it for
Sol L1, L2, L3 Directly under the square
Callao L3, L5 Gran Vía side, a few minutes' walk
Ópera L2, L5, Ramal West side, towards the Royal Palace
Sevilla L2 East side, Calle de Alcalá

Since the official pages do not yet say what will close, plan your route to and from one of the outer three stations rather than Sol itself. If Sol stays open, you lose nothing.

For the journey home, the Turismo de Madrid Metro page gives normal Metro hours of 06:00 to 01:30, with trains about every 15 minutes after midnight. It lists no special timetable for New Year's Eve. Do not count on extended service until Metro de Madrid announces it. Our Metro tickets guide explains which card to load before the night.

Before and after midnight

The lights: in the 2025–26 season the city's Christmas lights stayed on from 18:00 on 31 December until 06:00 on 1 January, according to the Turismo de Madrid lights page. The 2026–27 hours are due at the end of November.

New Year's Day: many sights shut on 1 January. Our Madrid at Christmas guide lists closures on 25 December, 1 January and 6 January.