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Things to do in Europe · Lisbon
Lisbon in October: what's on, what's open, what to book
Jazz on Tuesdays, a festival across Marvila, chamber music at the Gulbenkian and three exhibitions with end dates. This week's listings and what to know first.
- For visitors from the US
- For Europeans
- For visitors from East Asia
October is when Lisbon's own season starts. The rooftop concerts move indoors, the theatres and foundations publish their autumn programmes, and the river light turns the colour the postcards promise. Today, Monday October 5, is Republic Day, a public holiday, so the week proper begins on Tuesday. Everything below is on Glentio's Lisbon page today, with the dates as the organisers published them.
Lisbon this week
Live from Glentio's listings on 5 Oct 2026. Tap an event for details.
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Pastel de Nata Baking Class
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Sintra, Pena, Regaleira & Cabo Roca & Cascais Coast
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Tagus River Cruise with Welcome Drink
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Top-Rated Authentic Fado Show & Wine
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Jerónimos Monastery Skip the Ticket Line Entry & Audio Guide
Tuesdays belong to the Hot Clube
The Hot Clube de Portugal is the country's oldest jazz school, and this autumn it programmes two of the cheapest good nights in the city. Há Jazz no Parque Mayer runs on Tuesdays from October 6 at 19:00 in the Teatro Variedades, café-concert format with tables and a small stage, now that the summer series on the Capitólio roof has moved indoors. On Wednesday October 14 at 21:00 the school's students hold an open jam at Cossoul in Santos: bring an instrument and you can get on the stand.
Cossoul is also home to Lisbon's weekly short-film night. Shortcutz Lisboa #520 screens on Tuesday October 6 at 22:00 and #521 on October 13, new Portuguese shorts with the directors in the room afterwards. The main room is small, so arrive at the hour rather than after it.
The week: Marvila, Beato and the riverside
Os Dias de Marvila runs from Wednesday October 7 to Sunday October 11, the fourth edition of the neighbourhood's performing-arts festival, this year on the theme of liberty and democracy. Theatre, dance, cinema, music and guided walks are spread across the library, the schools and the warehouses of a district that was the city's industrial east bank and is now where its studios are. Next door in Beato, the old flour mill that houses the Museu de Lisboa hosts Slash / Transition from October 7 to 9, three days of exhibition, talks and listening sessions on sound as a way of reading a place.
Two riverside afternoons bookend the working week. On Thursday October 8 the Sunset Sessions put three hours of pop and soul on the Vasco da Gama rooftop in Parque das Nações from 17:00, with the bridge and the estuary in front of you. On Friday October 9 the Museu das Comunicações marks World Post Day from 10:00 to 17:00 by letting visitors make and send their own postcards among the telegraph and telephone collection.
Saturday October 10 has a film and a festival. Filhos de Cratera, Vasco Prazeres' documentary about the community living inside the crater of Fogo's active volcano, screens at 19:00 at the Cape Verdean cultural centre on Príncipe Real, which is the right room for it. The same day opens Festival Impacto, three weeks of talks, screenings and public debate on sustainability, technology and who pays for decisions, split between a theatre by the Jardim da Estrela and the Unicorn Factory, running until October 31. Sunday finishes with a day-long symposium at 46 Lisboa on Praça das Flores from 10:00, one of the pleasantest squares in the city to break for lunch.
Later in the month
- Monday October 12, 20:00: Solistas da Orquestra Gulbenkian. Players from the Gulbenkian Orchestra in a chamber recital with free admission, in the foundation whose halls and gardens are among the best things in Lisbon.
- Tuesday October 13, 17:30: Recital ao Ocaso, a dusk organ recital in the Pena parish church, the first of a season working through the eight church modes one month at a time.
- Thursday October 15, 22:15: Zoë and Sara Magid at the Arena Lounge, one of fifteen free concerts Casino Lisboa runs in Parque das Nações through October. Voice and piano, late, with a bar and no cover.
- Friday October 16, 18:00 to 23:00: Lusco Fusco, the open studios at Fábrica Moderna in Marvila, printers, ceramicists and designers with the work in progress visible rather than framed.
- Saturday October 17: free improvisation at Culturgest at 18:00, two sets by musicians who played with the trumpeter Sei Miguel, staged inside the gallery; then the University of Lisbon's academic orchestra opens its season at 21:00 in the Aula Magna with Debussy's Première Rhapsodie.
- Halloween weekend: Mata-Bosk, a dance piece at the São Luiz, the municipal theatre, on Saturday October 31 at 20:00 and Sunday November 1 at 17:30. A free slot in a proper house, which the São Luiz does rarely.
Three exhibitions, with their end dates
- Gran Turismo at POGO, a dockside warehouse on the waterfront, until October 11. The show takes on the thing Lisbon argues about most, tourism and what it does to its host, with unusually late Friday and Saturday hours. Go this week or miss it.
- Francisco Leal: Tiro no Escuro at Espaço Cultural Dona Ajuda on Rua Alexandre Herculano, until November 9. A young painter's first solo show in a room small enough that you are never more than a couple of metres from a canvas.
- Tatiana Macedo: Chapters for Freedom at the Coruchéus complex in Alvalade, until November 27.
Two Gulbenkian shows have no closing date published yet and are worth the trip to Avenida de Berna on the same visit as the chamber recital: Natura Mirabilis, twelve stops through the garden pairing works from the collection with the planting around them, and Inês Zenha: Águas Turvas in the CAM's project space.
Worth booking
From our partner's Lisbon catalogue, checked on October 1:
- Fado show with a glass of wine, from €19, fifty minutes. The highest-rated thing in the Lisbon catalogue, and the honest way to hear fado if you have one night.
- Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca and Cascais in a day, from €24, nine hours. The classic day trip, and October is the month to do it without the queues.
- Jerónimos Monastery ticket, from €18, and the Oceanário, from €26, the two tickets most worth having in hand before you arrive.
- Tagus river cruise with a welcome drink, from €15, ninety minutes, which at this time of year means the sunset.
Booking happens on the partner's site; Glentio earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
While you're in Lisbon
A few things to do in Lisbon from our partner GetYourGuide. Booking happens on their site.
Glentio earns a small commission when you book through these links, at no extra cost to you. Prices as shown on GetYourGuide on 1 Oct 2026; today's price and availability are on their site. More things to do in Lisbon
For visitors from the US
Dates on posters are written day first, so 10/10 is October 10. Prices above are in euros and your card converts them; the fado show costs about what a cinema ticket does at home, the Sintra day about a nice lunch. The Gulbenkian, Culturgest and the Aula Magna are all within a mile of each other in the Avenidas Novas, a 15-minute metro ride from the old town. Many museums close on Mondays, so plan the Monday chamber recital as an evening, not a day.
For Europeans
Lisbon is a two-to-three-hour flight from most of the continent and October fares are at their calmest. The one thing to book ahead is the Sintra day on a weekday, since weekend trains from Rossio fill up. If you are also doing Mallorca this month, Palma in October has the circus weekend and the long weekend of October 12; Lisbon's next public holiday is All Saints on Sunday November 1.
For visitors from East Asia
Mid-October is after Golden Week and before the Christmas season, so fares and hotels are at their calmest. Portugal applies a minimum purchase per receipt for a VAT refund, so ask for the tax-free form at the till for larger buys and validate it at the airport kiosk before you check your bags. Pay with a card; Alipay and WeChat Pay are accepted at only a few larger stores. The partner tours run in English; the lectures, the film and the theatre listed above are in Portuguese, the music needs no translation.
Sources
- Agenda Cultural de Lisboa, the city council's cultural agenda, checked October 5, 2026, for Marvila, the Gulbenkian recital, Culturgest, the Aula Magna, São Luiz and the Hot Clube's Tuesdays.
- Cartaz Cultural Lisboa, checked October 1 to 4, 2026, for Shortcutz, the Sunset Sessions, the Museu das Comunicações, Lusco Fusco, the Arena Lounge and the three exhibitions.
- The partner catalogue for Lisbon, as read on October 1, 2026, for prices and review counts.