What’s happening in Milan this week

Where to go in Milan: events, concerts and shows worth your night

Milan is Italy’s capital of everything that happens after work: the most famous opera house in the world, the country’s biggest concert venues, design and fashion weeks that fill the city with parties, and an aperitivo hour that turns into the night. Below is where to go in Milan for a night out, with addresses, and what tends to be on when.

Concerts and live music in Milan: from Alcatraz to the Blue Note

Alcatraz (Via Valtellina 25, 20159) is the city’s main club-sized concert hall, 3,000 standing, with touring rock and pop most nights of the week and club nights at weekends. Fabrique (Via Gaudenzio Fantoli 9, 20138) in the south-east does the same for electronic and indie tours. Arena shows play the Unipol Forum in Assago and, in summer, the stadiums. Blue Note Milano (Via Pietro Borsieri 37, 20159, bluenotemilano.com) in Isola has two jazz sets a night, Tuesday to Sunday, with dinner at the tables.

Milan nightlife: Navigli, Isola and Porta Venezia

The night begins with aperitivo, from six to nine, when a drink buys a plate of food; the Navigli canals in the south are the busiest place to have it, and stay busy until two. Isola, north of the Garibaldi station, is the newer scene, with Blue Note and the bars around Via Borsieri; Porta Venezia is the LGBTQ+ quarter and its late bars. The clubs cluster around Corso Como and, further out, along the Via Valtellina. The Metro stops around half past midnight, later on Saturdays, so plan the way home.

Opera, ballet and theatre in Milan

The Teatro alla Scala (Via Filodrammatici 2, 20121, teatroallascala.org) opens its season on 7 December, the feast of Sant’Ambrogio, and runs opera, ballet and symphony concerts until November. Gallery seats are affordable and released in a daily allocation; the season opener is the hardest ticket in Italy. The Piccolo Teatro, founded by Giorgio Strehler, is the city’s great prose theatre, with several stages; the Teatro degli Arcimboldi takes the musicals and touring shows.

Art galleries and museums in Milan for an evening out

Pirelli HangarBicocca (Via Chiese 2, 20126, pirellihangarbicocca.org), a former locomotive factory in the north with Anselm Kiefer’s seven towers as its permanent centrepiece, stages the city’s largest contemporary installations and is free. The Triennale (Viale Alemagna 6, 20121, triennale.org) in Parco Sempione covers design, architecture and art with a theatre and a terrace bar. The Fondazione Prada in the south and the Museo del Novecento on the Piazza del Duomo complete the modern set, and the Brera gallery opens late on Thursdays.

Milan festivals and events by season

• Spring: Milan Design Week in April, when the Salone del Mobile and the Fuorisalone events fill every district with openings and parties; and Piano City, free piano concerts across the city in May.
• Summer: the summer concert season in the stadiums and at the Ippodromo, Milano Pride at the end of June, and open-air cinema and concerts through the Estate Sforzesca in the castle courtyard.
• Autumn: fashion week in September, JazzMi in October and November, and the Artissima and Bookcity weeks.
• Winter: La Scala’s opening night on 7 December, the Christmas markets around the Duomo, and the fashion and furniture previews in January and February.

Things to do in Milan tonight and this weekend

The listings above are the live version of all this: every concert, show, club night and exhibition on in Milan tonight, tomorrow and this weekend, with times, prices and tickets, updated every hour.