The next edition of the Valencia Open 500 ATP World Tour will have one of the best tables in its history. A total of 32 players will participate in this unique ATP 500 series tournament in Spain taking place in indoor and fast courts. The Valencia Open 500, from October 18th-26th in the main square of the City of the Arts and Sciences, is a tournament at the same level as those held in Washington, Tokyo, Peking, Dubai and Barcelona. Tennis fans are in for a treat!

A Ferris wheel, the tallest portable one in Europe, allows you to see Valencia as you have never seen it before. Mirador Valencia (Valencia Lookout) is the new tourist attraction which offers you a panoramic view from a height of 70 metres, 360º around, up to a range of thirty kilometres. Height, views and slow speed all contribute to delight passengers. No excuses! Hop on aboard, have a look, and be amazed.

The Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) offers its best to celebrate a special birthday, no less than 25 years. That is why, in order to commemorate the fact that this Valencian museum has been offering the best modern art in the local capital for a quarter of a century, a number of expositions have been organised for the year 2014 with the best parts of its collection. Art in its purest state to celebrate a happy birthday.

From 1 to 28 July the city celebrates its traditional Valencia July Fair 2013 with great music outdoor concerts, fireworks in the harbor and a lot of shows in the more enjoyable summer nights that you should not miss.

The countdown is on for the eighth edition of Valencia's most eagerly-awaited gastronomic event. From 7 to 16 June, the city's best restaurants will once again be offering exquisite set menus at special prices. As always, the list will include interesting surprises and new additions, so stay tuned!

From 5 to 9 June, the Marina Real Juan Carlos I in Valencia will be hosting an extraordinary nautical and community event with children's workshops and cooking demonstrations featuring the very best local produce. This is La Route des Princes, a sporting event expected to attract local residents and tourists alike into the city in search of good food, music, culture and first-rate entertainment.

The 2013 VI Festival del Mediterrani returns to the Palau de les Arts in Valencia with opera, concerts, recitals and lots more. The programme includes opera, with Othello, piano recitals of music by Verdi and Wagner, plus works by Brahms and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Performances start at 8 pm and 7 pm on Sundays and public holidays. To see the programme and buy tickets, go to the official web site VI Festival Mediterrani 2013.

This week Valencia will also be hosting the Festival Internacional de Musica Contemporanea Ensems, the oldest chamber music festival in Spain. Concerts will be held from 29 May to 2 June in various cultural venues and at different times of day. Ensems focuses mainly on chamber music, but the event usually includes an orchestral concert as well as a series of educational and other activities. To see the full programme and buy tickets, go to the Ensems International Festival of Contemporary Music web site.

The Corpus Christi celebration has been held for centuries with different religious, cultural and festive events in a large number of towns and cities throughout the whole region of Valencia, and in some places with great splendour in their events and amazing processional parades.

The Festival of Nations is running up to 9 June, bringing cultures from nations across the world into Valencia. The event is based in the Turia riverbed park Valencia. It’s a fantastic place to spend the day having fun and exploring music, food and culture from lots of other countries.

Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) exhibits until the 13th January an exhibition on the career of alcoyano Antoni Miró. Over 121 works, its continued willingness to symbolic is unveiled. Images with paradoxes or expressive literary metaphors with literary figures that create an own world are some of the main features of the works in this exhibition.

Once again, the monumental crib is installed in Santa Maria Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica until the 6th January. Moreover, the traditional Neapolitan crib can be visited at the National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts González Martí in Valencia from next Sunday.

From 24th to 29th November, Valencia is the scenario of the Japan Week 2012. For this week are scheduled sports activities in the pavilion of the Fuente de San Luis, urban exhibitions as well as in Turia Gardens, performances in the Palau de la Música and even a Tea Ceremony. Oin the occasion of the celebration of this event, the city has wide range of events and activities related to Japanese culture.

Valencia has a wide cultural offer. The Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) and the Valencia Museum of Renown and Modernity (MuVIM) are some examples thanks to the periodical exhibitions on display at their facilities.

The Jardin Botanico de la Universitat de Valencia (Botanical Garden of the University of Valencia) is not only a university garden of the sixteenth century, a rich and diverse museum in which are grown almost five thousand of different plant species, it is much more, it is culture, music, jazz ... So during the coming months it will be the scenario for a jazz concert series related to renewable energy and entitled Jazz, Energy and Synergy.

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia presents a rich in nuances 2011-2012 season. It combines well known and less well known titles; young singers and international stars with the highest quality as a common denominator.

Boris Godunov by Modest Musorgski opens the sixth season of the Palau, the 5th November. Also, ton 22nd November, music of Rossini takes the Main Hall for the first time in the history of the Palau de les Arts with the second opera of the season, La Cenerentola. On the other hand, the Milanese Riccardo Chailly will be added to the list of great conductors who have led the Orchestra of the Region of Valencia with a concert version of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, scheduled for 16th and 18th December.

A free exhibition by Jean Claude Farhi that includes eleven ochre pieces of iron in which the constant geometry, the most typical characteristic of this Parisian artist, can be admired. The sculptures on display at the Umbracle are nine ochre-coloured iron pieces and one piece of black covered Corten. Additionally, there is one of his works on display in the Museum's Calle Menor, They were made between 1998 and 2011.The exhibition is dedicated to those aspects that have become especially significant to the artist from an intimate and personal approach together with current concerns.The Farhi exhibition shares the Umbracle's Art Promenade, a space free-of-charge for visitors.

The City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia invites you to enjoy the Noches del Oceanogràfic until 31st August. Thanks to this activity, you will visit the facilities of the Oceanogràfic at different hours, from 10 am to 12 am, which also includes a night exhibition at the Delfinario with synchronized swimming, percussion music and lights.

Entitled Siete mares, seis continentes, un solo mundo (Seven Seas, six continents, one world), you will enjoy the story of the trip of sea nymphs, that with regard to the activity of men on sea resources they go all over the six continents to convince humans and make them aware of the need to protect the marine wealth. Through sound rhythms, careful lighting and wonderful antics of the dolphins the importance of respecting the environment is transmitted. In this way, and during the summer, visitors will have the chance to admire the species living in Oceanogràfic such as sharks, seals, walruses and beluga whales.

Between 27th July and 13th August, Festival d'Estiu de Teatres-Sagunt a Escena is celebrated in Valencia. A series of musical events, theater, dance, performance and street actions that make up a very interesting scenic view.

The Festival d'Estiu de Teatres-Sagunt a Escena combines the plurality, by performing all the trends. Los locos de Valencia from Centre Teatral de la Generalitat, Carmen by Ramon Oller for the Ballet de Teatres, Materia Prima by La Tristura, l'Om Imprebis and its Origenes, are some of the names of this year, besides a full program dedicated to street entertainment.Among the new features this year includes the Off Romano.

As in previous editions of the Filmoteca destiu in Valencia, the series Cine de Hoy (Cinema today) recover the film Pa Negre, awarded the Goya for Best Picture, the stark look of Agusti Villaronga about the Spanish Civil War; the Best Documentary Film Bicycle, Cullera, Poma tracked the daily struggle against Alzheimer by Pasqual Maragall and the best Latin American film La vida de los peces.

As every summer, the Filmoteca destiu offers the possibility to enjoy an excellent cinephile in the gardens of the Palau de la Musica until 29th August. Enjoy the warm and pleasant nights of August in a awesome place and good company. Let's go to the Filmoteca destiu.

Corteo, which means entourage in Italian, is a joyful procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown, which will be performed at the Campus de Tarongers of l'Universitat de València starting on 16t June. This production of the Cirque du Soleil combines the passion of actors with the elegance and strength of acrobats, immersing the audience in a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity suspended somewhere in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.

An exact replica of the oldest glacial mummy in the world will be in Valencia until 24th July. The city's Museum of Prehistory will be home to Ötzi. El hombre de hielo (Ötzi, the Ice Man) whose face has been rebuilt by the brothers Alfonso and Adrie Kennis, two Dutch artists who specialise in natural history and palaeontology.

A German couple came across Ötzi by accident in 1991. Naturally preserved in a glacier in the Ötz Valley for over 5,000 years, this mummy answers many of the questions about what life was like for humans in the Copper Age. Since 1998 he has been kept in a refrigerated chamber at -6º with a humidity level of 98%, where he can be seen with all his accoutrements.

Between 26th April and 5th June, Dansa València is presenting dance in its many varied styles, aspects and forms in order to offer spectators a wide range of different types of choreographies. On this occasion, the theme of the festival revolves around choreographic composition.

Works by Asun Noales, Thomas Noone, Supremos Crew, CobosMika, Ohad Naharin, Cecilia Gomez and Les Slovaks will all be on show not forgetting Thomas Lebrun, who will also be presenting the latest premiere from La Coja Dansa and the new production from Taiat Dansa in collaboration with Juan Bernardo Pineda as well as Desalmados, the latest from Ananda Dansa.

Baltasar Lobo is taking up residence at the IVAM, Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) in the city of Valencia until 1st May. The exhibition of work by this multi-faceted artist brings together around a hundred works, including sculptures and drawings, representing the different stages of the artist's creative process.

Specifically, the exhibition features 92 works - 72 sculptures and 20 drawings - created between the 1940s and the 90s. Thanks to this artistic compilation, you can become an eye witness to his legacy, which has been shown in museums and public spaces around France, Spain, Germany, Austria and Venezuela.

Take a trip to the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) in the city of Valencia and enjoy the exhibition Julio Gonzalez David Smith. Un dialogo sobre la escultura, an artistic tribute to two seminal figures in modern sculpture, which is on at the museum until 1st May.

This exhibition examines the interesting tangle of convergences and affinities that shaped a fertile artistic dialogue as a decisive change emerged on the horizon that would give rise to modern sculpture.

Until March, the Oceanogràfic at the City of Arts and Sciences will be home to an exhibition entitled Skeleton Sea. This is a project launched by the artists Joao Parrinha, Luis de Dios and Xandi Kreuzeder which aims to send a message out to the world about the need to keep our oceans clean.

These are the creative forces behind this original exhibition which features pieces created from flotsam and jetsam collected from the sea and different beaches these artists have visited on their travels around the world.

The Valencia Museum of Prehistory is running an exhibition entitled Artifex, Ingenieria romana en España (Artifix. Roman engineering in Spain), a fascinating journey to Ancient Rome through its inventions, which you can enjoy until 6th March.

The exhibition on display in Valencia talks about the materials used at the time, the importance of major infrastructures to join the different parts of the Empire and the techniques used by the Romans.

Creative, naturalist, independent and humanist. Any definition of the Castellon-born artist Juan Ripolles falls short. So it is worth discovering his essence through his own work. A complete collection of the artist's work has been installed at the Umbracle in Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences, a free exhibition running until 30th March.

The collection includes 20 large-scale sculptures created by this Castellon-born artist. Through his work, we can discern the renowned sculptor's identification with nature, man and the complexity of his relationship with his surroundings, described in arbitrary and ingenuous sculptural forms, which the artist reformulates with the vitalistic and optimistic attitude of each figure.

Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, with musical direction by Lorin Maazel and Omer Wellber, the lead guest conductor, is opening the 2010-2011 season at the Valencia Opera House. In total, the Palau de les Arts will be offering two performance seasons for this opera.

The great maestro Maazel conducts the opening night of this new co-production with the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, and the Den Norske Opera & Ballet from Oslo, on 13th November, as well as a further four performances on 19th, 22th, 25th and 28th of this same month.

The Chirivella Soriano Foundation is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the artist Santiago Ydañez in the rooms of its Palau de Valeriola until 9th January. The exhibition reviews Ydañez work over the last two decades, consisting of large-format works of images of human faces, animals, saints and bodies, which raise questions about personal representation, self-portraiture and character construction.

With a total of 36 works the exhibition occupies three floors of the Palau Joan de Valeriola, which is the headquarters of the Chirivella Soriano Foundation. The exhibition takes an in perspective look at the career of Santiago Ydañez, its development internationally and its particular emphasis on people's faces.

For the first time ever in Europe, the Principe Felipe Science Museum is holding the Star Trek. Welcome Aboard exhibition, which includes several original props from the Star Trek TV series and films. The exhibition, which will be open until February 2011, displays a replica of the command bridge, models and original objects, including audio-visual elements, from this legendary series which did actually predict the future, foreseeing inventions such as laser beams, the CAT scan, the mobile phone and automatic doors.

The Agora in Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences has, once again this year, been chosen to host the most intense and exciting tennis tournament held in the Region of Valencia: the second Valencia Tennis Open. From 30th October to 7th November, the best rackets in the world will be hitting hard in a bid to claim victory.

This competition is shoring up its reputation as one of the most attractive Open 500 tournaments on the international scene for several reasons, including its exceptional venue, the Agora, and the number of top tennis players competing in this tournament.

The City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia refreshes the hot summer days with fun evening proposals. In fact, one of the new features of Nights at l'Oceanogràfic, which is taking place from 16th to 31st July this year, will be a multimedia theatrical show. This event uses different artistic disciplines to look at the history and cultural tradition of the Mediterranean basin through mythology.

A fusion between two worlds, that of humans and of nature, told through music, light, sound and the exercises performed by the dolphins. A night that, among other things, aims to raise awareness among audience members and convey respect for the environment.

From 13th May until 13th June, the former course of the River Turia, in Valencia, is hosting the Fair of Nations. An ideal event to have a great time and discover the music, gastronomy and ultimately the culture of a great many countries.

This Fair, an event with a huge sociocultural dimension, features many attractive activities and fun spectacles. Every year it draws great crowds of people and is hugely successful.

The Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) presents From Gaudi to Picasso, an exhibition featuring over a hundred works including drawings, paintings, sculpture and decorative arts, from different museums, foundations and private collections.

From Gaudi to Picasso focuses on the early work of Picasso and Julio Gonzalez, two multi-faceted artists who completed their training during the Modernist period and who went on to occupy prominent positions in the history of 20th Century painting and sculpture.

Valencia is hosting the 33rd America's Cup. The oldest sailing event in the world is casting off on 8th February in Mediterranean waters. This is where the thirty third edition of this tough and exciting contest will be taking place. All the wheels have already been set in motion to host this spectacular battle of the titans, as the Swiss Alinghi team faces the North American BMW Oracle.

Furthermore, all kinds of parallel activities have been prepared for the public's enjoyment...In fact, in the area surrounding the Veles e Vents building there will be children's activities, different kinds of entertainment, games, live coverage of the races and even concerts. Attendees will also have the chance to sample some typical Swiss and American food and, of course, traditional Valencian recipes, at the food and drinks stands set up all along the Explanada de Veles e Vents promenade.

The Fundacion La Luz de las Imagenes is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a new exhibition: La Gloria del Barroco. Over 300 works are on display in the churches of San Martin Obispo y San Antonio Abad, San Esteban Protomartir and San Juan de la Cruz, with pride of place going to those by such artists as Pedro Pablo Rubens, Francisco Ribalta, Jeronimo Jacinto de Espinosa and Jose Ribera, as well as previously unseen works by Paolo di Matteis.

The route starts in the Almudin, with an exhibition showing the first ten years of the Foundation. There is also an audiovisual experience showing the glory of Baroque Art in Valencia in its many forms. The Gloria del Barroco can be visited from 10am to 8pm, Tuesday to Friday and also lets visitors view three churches dating back to the reconquest of the city that have recovered their markedly Baroque splendour.

The Valencia Water Court is a traditional common-law body, custodian of an age-old community-focused and democratic water culture. Following its nomination presented jointly by the regions of Valencia and Murcia, it has been declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The Water Court performs its jurisdictional function by holding a public hearing every Thursday at midday outside the Apostles Gate of Valencia's Cathedral. Its mission is to guarantee the correct functioning of the region's vast and complex network of irrigation channels and safeguard the interests of the communities of irrigation water-users in Valencia, Quart, Benàger-Faitanar, Tormos, Mislata, Mestalla, Favara, Rascanya, Rovella and Xirivella.

The Valencia Open 500 is a great opportunity to see some of the best tennis players in the world play close up, although the first edition of the Valencia Open 500 is much more than that; it is a tournament that is open to all Valencians and tennis fans. Until 8th November, the world's top-ranked players such as Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrero will be putting on an extraordinary show at the Ágora in the City of Arts and Sciences.

Bioparc Valencia presents the Kitum Cave, a complex enclosure that links the areas dedicated to the Savannah, the Equatorial rainforest and the African wetlands. Watch the hippos dive and marvel at the graceful turtles and crocodiles. You will be enthralled!

The Ricardo Tormo Speed Circuit in the Region of Valencia will be hosting the Valencian Motorcycling Grand Prix from 6th to 8th November, your last chance to see these great figures before the Motorcycling World Championship comes to an end this year.

After a highly intense season, Valentino Rossi has successfully defended his title as MotoGP World Champion. He secured his victory in Malaysia, with one race to go, in spite of the pressure put on him by his team mate Jorge Lorenzo and the threat of other heavyweights such as Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa.

This is the last opportunity to see Sorolla's paintings in Spain before they return to New York. Until 10th January, the Bancaja Cultural Centre will be home to this successful exhibition, entitled Vision de España. Sorolla en las colecciones de la Hispanic Society of America y de Bancaja (Vision of Spain. Sorolla in the collections of the Hispanic Society of America and Bancaja), featuring emblematic works such as Afternoon Sun.

Until 30th November, the Principe Felipe Science Museum will be home to a photographic exhibition entitled Las Huellas del Tiempo, produced by the San Francisco Exploratorium. This exhibition is based on the book Traces of time: The beauty of change in nature, a collection of thirty photographs that show the profound traces left by time on different aspects of nature.

The exhibition invites visitors to discover places where nature has inscribed messages from the past: the rings of a tree trunk, the capricious forms of a stone, the arrangement of layers of ice, the strata of rock in the Grand Canyon and indeed any of the forms from the natural world which act a record of past events. These traces, not always visible at first sight, can reveal information that dates back millions of years.

Between 2nd and 6th July, you can enjoy a whole host of activities, concerts, shows, markets, parades, firework displays and competitions in emblematic locations all around the city of Valencia thanks to its July Fair.

On 4th, 5th, 10th and 11th of this month, one of the most keenly anticipated events will be taking place; the International Music Band Competition, which has been held for over 120 years. A total of 27 bands, 23 of which are competing and the other four appearing as guest acts, will be performing at the Opera House and Bullring.

Under the name Al Sud del Rin, the Palau de les Arts will be hosting the second edition of the Mediterrani Festival from May 30 to June 30, an event dedicated to the tetralogy by Richard Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).

The incredible production staged by the Fura dels Baus Company under the direction of Zubin Mehta has achieved major international recognition. The cast starring in the four parts that make up The Ring of the Nibelung (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung) includes some leading names that have already performed these productions in the Palau de les Arts in the past to great critical and popular acclaim. In fact, the famous tenor Placido Domingo will be playing the role of Siegmund at the performance of Die Walküre on 24th June.

The International Festival Dansa València, taking place between 24th April and 17th May in the city of Valencia, is one of the most important dance festivals in Spain.

The line-up for the 2009 edition is filled with major international acts such as Random Dance directed by Wayne McGregor, The Monte Carlo Ballet directed by Jean Christophe Maillot and the Batsheva Dance Company directed by Ohad Naharin, who this year will be receiving the Dansa València 2009 award in recognition of his artistic achievement.

Until April, you can see the first major exhibition dedicated to Charlie Chaplin in the public exhibition hall of El Almudin. It contains around 250 photographs, 15 films and other documents, some of which have never been in the public domain before, about the actor, director, composer and producer, and the comic character he immortalised.

The documents provided by the family of Charles Chaplin, which are now on display in Valencia's former grain silo, include a colour engraving that Chaplin's brother made on the set of the film The Great Dictator, as well as the first film in which the actor appears in the role of The Tramp. The exhibition, entitled Chaplin en imagenes, offers an overview of the artist and his career.

150 years ago, the Englishman Charles Darwin revolutionised the international scientific community with the publication of The origin of species, a work in which he laid the foundations for his theory of evolution. The Museum of Enlightenment and Modernity (MuVIM) is taking part in the acts organised to celebrate the bicentenary of his birth with Monomania: un divertimento en honor a Darwin.

This exhibition takes a fun look at the various repercussions of Darwin's famous theory in different cultural spheres. From Wednesday 27th February until 10th May you have the chance to enjoy this exhibition at the MuVIM in the city of Valencia.

The cutting-edge venues at The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias are hosting an exclusive concert by the Scottish band Franz Ferdinand, headlining the second edition of the MTV Winter festival. This is the first gig played by the band as part of their Spanish tour and... ... You could be there for free to listen to live performances of tracks from their third album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand!

The relationship between Julio Gonzalez and Pablo Picasso was one of the most fruitful artistic encounters of the 20th Century. The exhibition features 84 drawings included in Album number 7 of The Ladies of Avignon, on loan from the Picasso Foundation in Malaga, together with a selection of 50 works by Julio Gonzalez from the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM). Learn more about this fruitful and productive exchange at the exhibition Julio Gonzalez versus Pablo Picasso until 26th April in Valencia.