Flamenco flair will fill the streets with guitar, song and dance in the annual Festival Flamenco Rosa Fina.

Casares gears up for its biggest cultural weekend of the summer

Casares hosts the ninth edition of the Festival Flamenco Rosa Fina on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22, turning Plaza Marcelino Camacho, in the El Llano area of the village, into an open-air stage for two nights running. Entry to every performance is free.

Organisers call it one of the most important cultural dates on the Costa del Sol’s summer calendar, with a line-up that mixes established names and rising talent. Casares’s old town is officially protected as a site of cultural interest and happens to be the birthplace of Andalucian statesman Blas Infante.

Friday night with music through the streets

Opening night focuses on Andalucian roots music. Guitarist Raul Rodriguez shares the bill with Alpujarran orchestra Balateabajo and verdiales folk group Raices de Los Moras, who travel over from Almogia for the occasion. Rather than heading straight to the stage, the Almogia musicians lead a lively street procession starting at Plaza de España and winding through town before arriving at El Llano.

Saturday night, the biggest names in flamenco

The second evening is all about the flamenco, with singer Al-Blanco performing alongside guitarist El Peli, plus guitarist Daniel Casares and dancer Rafaela Carrasco. Al-Blanco, who hails from Malaga, uses the night to present his debut album to the crowd. Casares and Carrasco, both well known within Spain’s flamenco scene, round out a bill likely to draw serious fans.

The festival takes its name from Francisco Doncel Quiros, known as “Niño de la Rosa Fina,” a Casares-born singer whose career flourished in the 1930s before the Spanish Civil War cut short the lives and careers of many artists of his generation.

For anyone who wants to throw themselves into an event of pure Andalucian culture, this is a low-effort, high-reward couple of evenings. No tickets, no booking, just turn up in Casares and enjoy. For all official details and timings visit the Casares Town Hall website.

Estepona is preparing a major upgrade of its beach facilities, with almost €900,000 being invested in new lifeguard stations, public toilets and more durable access routes across the town’s coastline.

Six more lifeguard stations and nine new toilets

A €421,685 contract will cover six new lifeguard and rescue modules, nine toilet modules and a storage unit. Facilities will be distributed between Arroyo Vaquero, El Cristo, La Rada, El Saladillo, El Padrón and the Paseo Maritimo.

New rescue stations will provide space for lifeguards to rest while also allowing rescue and accessibility equipment to be kept close to the water. The storage facility will house items, including amphibious chairs and stretchers.

Nine new toilet units will include toilets, washbasins, foot-washing facilities and accessible areas for people with reduced mobility. Ramps will provide easier access, while construction materials have been chosen to cope with the harsh coastal environment.

1,250 metres of concrete beach walkways

A second contract worth €457,259 will replace Estepona’s existing, but battered, wooden beach walkways with 1,250 metres of prefabricated concrete paths.

Each walkway will be 1.8 metres wide, linking public beach entrances with dry and wet sand, toilets and lifeguard facilities. Their greater resistance should also make them better able to cope with storms and beach-cleaning machinery.

Forty-two new drainage platforms for showers and foot washes will also be installed, together with another 40 platforms for beach modules.

Estepona continues coastal investment

Work follows last summer’s installation of 17 new lifeguard and rescue towers at La Rada, El Cristo, El Padrón, El Saladillo and Arroyo Vaquero.

Estepona’s current beach investment also has a clear accessibility element. Andalucia requires public beaches to provide accessible routes, with permanent or stable walkways permitted where conventional access is not possible.

Current regional beach information lists the main Estepona beaches covered by the works as suitable for bathing, with several receiving an “excellent” water-quality classification in May 2026.

The changes should give residents and visitors easier access to the sand while reducing the repeated maintenance needed for temporary wooden walkways.