What Happened to PhiPhi, Blu, Playa Canalla and Margarita in Puerto Sherry

For years, summer in El Puerto de Santa María had an address: Puerto Sherry. PhiPhi, Blu, Playa Canalla and Margarita filled the afternoons and nights next to the marina. Since midnight on 6 July 2026, all four have been closed. If you're searching for any of them, this is the short version of what happened, based on the press coverage and on what the venues themselves said, and what the options are now.

Is Margarita open?

No. Margarita, in Puerto Sherry, has been closed since midnight on 6 July 2026, like PhiPhi, Blu and Playa Canalla. Its Instagram bio reads “Casi estamos de vuelta” (we're almost back), but as of 11 October 2026 it hasn't announced a reopening date. There are no tickets to buy for Margarita: nothing is on sale, and advance tickets for summer 2026 were refunded by the venue itself, according to its statement of 6 July.

Is PhiPhi open?

No. PhiPhi Beach, Grupo BanBan's first beach club, closed on 6 July 2026. It kept posting summer photos until 9 September, without announcing any dates.

Is Blu open?

No. Blu, BanBan's tardeo club for a younger crowd, also closed on 6 July 2026 and hasn't announced a return.

Is Playa Canalla open?

No. Playa Canalla, also BanBan, closed on 6 July 2026 after barely a month of season: it had posted “Welcome season 2026” on 9 June. On 7 July it thanked its public and promised to be back soon, without a date.

The four venues

• PhiPhi Beach: Grupo BanBan's first beach club, opened in 2018 at Playa del Aculadero, with a different theme each day and a season that usually ran from April to September.
• Blu: also BanBan, from 2018, described by the group as its tardeo club for a younger crowd, with themed parties and shows.
• Playa Canalla: BanBan, from 2020, which the group calls one of the national references for tardeo, aimed at people aged 26 and over.
• Margarita: the fourth venue, with one of the biggest Instagram followings in the area (almost 69,000). It is not part of BanBan.

Why did the Puerto Sherry clubs close? (The centre is still open)

The four venues stood on port public land, which is managed by the Autoridad Portuaria de la Bahía de Cádiz (APBC), the Port Authority. Their authorisation dated from 2021: three years, plus a three-year extension. In 2026 a further extension was requested, and at its board meeting on 25 June the APBC refused it. Without that authorisation, the town hall explained that it had no legal room to keep the activity licences alive, and it ordered the activity to stop. The concession holder in the area, Marina Puerto de Santa María, had its appeal to the Port Authority rejected as well.

The timeline

The court decision came from Section 3 of the Contencioso-Administrativo at the Tribunal de Instancia de Cádiz, which turned down the interim measure. That left a last weekend, which ended on Sunday 5 July. From the first minute of Monday 6 July, the venues had to stop the music and close, and the town hall gave a maximum of ten days to remove the temporary structures.

What the venues said

Margarita published a statement on 6 July. Its message: this isn't goodbye, it's a “see you soon”. It said it didn't know how long the pause would last, that every advance ticket would be fully refunded and that it was planning a full renovation and a new stage. Today its Instagram bio reads “Casi estamos de vuelta” (we're almost back), with no date. Playa Canalla thanked its public for the last weekend on 7 July and promised to see them soon. PhiPhi and Blu kept posting summer photos through August and up to 9 September, with captions like “One summer. So many memories”, but without announcing any dates.

Will they come back in 2027?

Possibly, but nothing is confirmed. Because the land is port public domain, a municipal licence isn't enough. A legal adviser quoted by COPE on 26 June explained that the key is an urban planning study (an estudio de detalle) declaring the area suitable for summer beach bars, and that with it the project “could be resumed in 2027”. He also warned that the process isn't quick and that a reopening isn't expected in the short term. As of 11 October 2026 we haven't found any news confirming that the study has been approved or that any of the four will reopen. We'll update this article if that changes. Until then, treat any listing that sells you a Puerto Sherry beach club night as out of date.

How big a loss it was

To get an idea of the scale, look at their Instagram accounts as of October 2026: Margarita has almost 69,000 followers, PhiPhi almost 54,000, Playa Canalla around 21,000 and Blu around 20,000. No club in the centre of El Puerto comes close to those numbers. The closure also came at the worst moment. Playa Canalla had posted “Welcome season 2026” on 9 June and its bio still promises Saturdays in June; it ended up with barely a month of season. Margarita was announcing tardeos in late June, a few days before the closure.

If you had tickets for an event that didn't happen, the venues themselves are the ones to contact. Margarita said in its statement that it would refund all advance tickets in full, and local press reported before the closure that the Puerto Sherry venues planned to refund suspended events week by week.

Where to go out instead

With Puerto Sherry closed, the night in El Puerto has moved back to the centre. Banana, on Ribera del Marisco, says it opens every day and has El Eskakeo on Fridays. Guateque, from the same group as PhiPhi, Blu and Canalla, is open in the old town with mostly urban music. Gold opens Fridays and Saturdays. And if what you miss is tardeo, the closest thing is the two Cristaleras: the original by the Guadalete, which has just brought its concerts back, and La Cristalera Vistahermosa, with live music at weekends.

Latin and DJ sets · Ribera del Marisco, El Puerto de Santa MaríaSee Banana →

Urban, concerts and special sessions · Centro, El Puerto de Santa MaríaSee Guateque →

DJs and concerts · Galeras Reales, junto al Guadalete, El Puerto de Santa MaríaSee La Cristalera →