Bilbao BBK Live 2024

Mount Kobetamendi

Bilbao, Spain 20240712

This time we had the chance to live the experience of the BBK Live at Bilbao and, we must say this from the very beginning, it was just awesome!

At the top of the famous Mount Cobetas, or Kobetamendi in Basque (Euskara), Bilbao BBK LIVE hosts 120,000 people throughout three days and it never feels like it is overwhelmingly crowded. There were never long queues for grabbing drinks or food. Everywhere you would go, everywhere you would see, everything is just green at Kobetamenti. It is the perfect home for BBK Live.
Although it must be said that the festival is not the only reason why one should visit Bilbao, it is indeed a big plus. Especially with this incredible line-up!

Arriving at Bilbao BBK Live

One of the easiest ways to arrive, if you are not living in the near distance of Bilbao Itself, it is definitely by plane. There is a bus which is going from the Airport to the city downtown every 10 minutes and it is quite a reasonable price. If you are not willing to wait for the bus, there are always taxis right at the entrance of the airport which will charge around 30€ ~ 40€ and will take approximately 20 minutes to arrive at the city center.

As the way to go from the city center of Bilbao to the Kobetamendi Park, buses were going there every 15 minutes. To be more specific, the “station” where the buses are picking up the festivalgoers is exactly at the Stadium of San Mames. From there, the bus will take you uphill to another stop where you will have to walk for another 10 minutes uphill. We believe it is important to note that the bus is not bringing you to the entrance of the festival. The same applies whenever you are leaving the festival. The bus will not pick anybody up from the entrance of the festival itself but at the same drop-off location. Please keep this in mind in case you need some assistance to walk uphill. Be also aware that, even though there are some staff members across the highway to the festival, there are not many cartels or signs that are pointing the right way. It is pretty straightforward forward but still, it would be great to have a couple of signs pointing to where the festival and the drop-off point are.
The first bus to go to the festival was scheduled at 16:00 and will keep running every 15 minutes. Please be aware that the festival itself might not be open until later.

TIP: Anticipate that there is no beverage or food between the last bus stop and the entrance of the festival. This means, there are no stores of any kind along the way. You can bring food and beverages until this point.

Cashless Payment

This one was like the usual cashless payments in most festivals in Europe. In BBK Live is no different, with the exception that the plastic cups are also linked to your wristband. This does not mean that you can only have one cup! It means that you can buy as many cups as you want, but you can only return the cups you bought! That is, you cannot return the cups from your friends back.

As for the loading of money to the wristband, there are the usual options like web, app and onsite. The point for loading the money to the card onsite was never crowded and the waiting time was less than a minute. It is possible to pay with cash and with card.

As for the refund of the money that was spent, the whole process is quite fast and clear but the refund of the money itself might not be that quick, we recommend keeping this in mind and therefore if you want a refund, it is also possible to do it before you leave the festival.

Note that this is the map for the BBK LIVE 2024. Please refer to the BBK LIVE website for updated information if you plan to attend.

Food and Drinks

Within the festival there were two food courts, One is pretty much almost at the very entrance and the other one is at the back. Both count with a variety of options including vegetarian and vegan.

TIP: Go check out the very back of the food court at the back of the festival. Although it is a bit hidden, you will have an amazing panoramic view of the city while you enjoy your food. Perfect for a short break after several hours of music!

As for the prices, here are some of the items we checked so you can have an idea:

• Hot Dog – 9,00€
• Burger – 13,00 €
• Fries – 7,00 €
• Slice of Pizza – 7,00 €
• Big beer – 10,00 €
• Small beer – 5,00 €
• Plastic cup – 3,00 €

Music

There are seven different stages for more than hundred artist. yes, you read that right, there are seven stages! We at State of Guitars think that this is an insanely well curated lineup. It is usually what one can expect from BBK Bilbao, but this time was just perfect!

THE PRODIGY

The main stage Nagusia, where the people were dancing non-stop, had legendary bands like The Prodigy, which opened their act with „Breathe“ from the masterpiece „Fat Of The Land“, followed by „Omen“ from the album „Invaders Must Die“ completely blew away all the low energy and gathered everyone around to the very unique sound they have. Liam and Maxim continued the playlist with „Firestarter“, „Smack My Bitch Up“, „Voodoo People“, „Firestarter“, „Spitfire“ and made a special tribute to Keith Flint with the song „We Live Forever“ from the album „No Tourists“ having on the background video fragments of him dancing and singing during. Finally, The Prodigy closed Nagusia for the first day of BBK with „Out Of Space“.

UNDERWORLD

Another big band that played in Nagusia was the British electronic duo Underworld, which started their setlist with “Two Months Off” from the album “A Hundred Days Off“, this was a perfect song to start to pump up the jam. The setlist followed with “Rez” mixed into “Cowgirl” from their third studio album “DUBNOBASSWITHMYHEADMAN“. During the entire set, the fans did not stop dancing at all. It became a moment where, for the final song, the crowd remained silent for a couple of seconds right before the beginning of “Born Slippy“. It was as if we all knew what was about to happen. Everyone was waiting for the song. Do not get confused, we, the crowd, really enjoyed every single song of the set, but this time we were waiting for a song, a song that marked a whole generation not only because of the amazing song that was played in clubs years ago but also for the amazing movie Trainspotting. Everyone started singing along for this song. A goosebumps moment. Thank you, Underworld.

ARCADE FIRE

Arcade Fire was just great. We will not mention much about it because, lucky you, there is a recording of the whole concert. Here it is, just for you. Brought to you by State of Guitars and ARTE concert.
Enjoy.

MASSIVE ATTACK

Massive Attack, also playing at the Nagusia scenario, presented a quite mixed setlist, the first song was “Risingsong“, this song, also one in the album “Mezzanine”, prepared the crowd for what was coming. The audience couldn’t help it but join and sing during the songs. There were several screams and tears of excitement when, from the same album, “Angel” and Teardrop” were played. Following up with “Girl I Love You” and “Black Milk“, the audience reached a synchronized singing and anemone-like dance. The show was truly epic.

There were several messages during the entire show. Some of these messages were only showing a lot of numbers and then just showing what the numbers meant. Some of those were quite big numbers. Numbers with more than 16 digits. Some of the messages were related to the usage of trillions of dollars to sustain military systems around the globe. Some of the messages mentioned that this money is part of budgets from different governments. Some other messages were broadcasting the comparison of the money that is being used for climate change issues. Making a clear point that there is an extreme and abusive use of money in several industries while there is not enough budget assigned to improve the decrease of carbon emissions, all of this is presented to the audience as part of the background of the show and most of it in Euskera language. Massive Attack itself has been working in trying to reduce carbon emissions as much as it can. As an example, they have stated that they try to travel mainly by train. Also, as part of their effort to take action on the climate change issue, they are currently offering an open resource the Roadmap to Super Low Carbon Live Music. You can find more about it here.

Khruangbin: A LA SALA

Khruangbin, also playing in Nagusia and currently touring the new album “A LA SALA“, made the whole festival dance. They started the set with several songs from the new album. “A Love International“, “May Ninth“, “Pon Pón” and “Hold Me Up” . And although this was a bit more of one-third of the show, they did not forget about the past albums. Khruangbin also played “Maria también”. A shoutout to Mark for the brutal guitar and to DJ for the outstanding drums. Although we also want to give a shoutout to the ultra-groovy bass, we also need to address that for more than an hour the fans were nowhere near stopping dancing, and no one could top the energy and sexy moves of Laura Lee.

They had a lot of colors on the background of the scenario which was a big staircase with windows. The whole scenario was white and perfect for simulating different pieces of the sunset, which was understood to be parts of the artwork of the different albums they have released. They made perfect transitions between the songs and the scenery. By the moment they started playing music from the A LA SALA album, the whole scenario was illuminated in different tones of red/orange while on the background where the windows were, one could see clouds in the background. This was a perfect simulation of the A LA SALA´s cover. While we keep the different colors of the scenario, there is something else that was quite colorful. We must mention once again something about Lee, her outfit. She was wearing a red hat which was flower-like, making a great combo with her red vest with skirt and pants. We truly appreciate the effort of having different and cool outfits for every single show.

As mentioned before, with different tones of orange came the sunrise showing some colors that could represent some light from a Texa’s sun. While transitioning to a scenario with colors a bit more with tones of brown with an evening with less bright colors, we could see the evening turning into northern light right in the windows, this while playing a song from the album “Con Todo El Mundo“. And finally, another extremely cool transition was for the album ¨The Universe Smiles Upon You¨ which turned the scenario in a little piece of the universe, a universe of colors with galaxies and stars on the windows.

We strongly recommend taking the opportunity to see Khruangbin live. It is a wonderful experience.

JUNGLE: Volcano

After one whole day of dancing and singing, it was not a surprise to see an early day with some of the fans recovering from an intense previous festival day. But do not think this lasted for a long time, for the second day, there were many bands that were long awaited, sure this was not an exception for Jungle!

Presenting their new album Volcano with the new member Lydia Kitto, definitely made everyone shake their souls! Although Lydia has collaborated with Jungle before, she is officially a member of Jungle for the album “Volcano”. Several songs of the new album were played but without falling into the sole promotion of it, Jungle integrated several songs from all of the albums during this tour perfectly. “Busy Earnin'”, “Casio” and “The Heat” were songs that were included on several dates of the tour.

The scenario was mainly covered in tones of red. With the dry ice, it was easy to imagine that the whole scene was simulating the inner chambers of a volcano. Do you imagine what it would be like to be dancing inside a Volcano? Well, if you had the opportunity to see Jungle live, for sure you know, but if not, maybe you will know the next time Jungle is playing. But do not worry, we are here to describe it to you. That is what it felt like, like a tribal musical ritual that had no rules and no scheme whatsoever, the only rule there is to let go and dance in the way you feel like. Not caring much about the weather, I can guarantee you that you would get the same steamy temperature after dancing for an entire setlist with Jungle.

AIR: Moon Safari

Air, in the San Miguel stage, presented Moon Safari, it was a truly unique experience! We are so glad to have the chance to see this show. and for the San Miguel stage which, this time, was the second biggest stage, they sure made a great comeback.

Within a box-shaped scenario, Air gave perfect melodies in sync with different colors which changed the box’s shine, which was white at the core, but it didn’t matter much after all since with all the colors it felt like going through a movie in space. Many fans could not believe that AIR was going to stick to the tour Moon Safari and only play the whole album during the entire tour. There were a couple of times that they played more songs that were not part of the album. Still, the main issue was to give us the fantastic show of Moon Safari live.

So… yes, the French duo from Versailles did not disappointed and kept their promise, they started the show with “La femme d’argent” followed by the unique song “Sexy Boy“. They kept going playing Moon Safari song by song until “Le voyage de Pénélope“, after this, they played a couple more songs which included “Venus“, “Run” and “Highschool Lover” among others. This last one really gave the chills and the vibe of them slowly saying goodbye.

MEZERG

Not leaving the French act behind, enter Mezerg!

Marc Mezergue has been touring in Europe for the last couple of years. In the past, we had the opportunity to see his show for the first time in WUK, in Vienna. This time, we had the opportunity to enjoy the blast in BBK. We must say that his music is authentic to the core. It is not just another techno sound with some dance sauce. There are several moments during the show, especially when one starts to be amazed by the music and tries to get a grasp of what is going on on the stage, that one can see the definition of a one-man-armyband.

Mezerg played in the Beefeater scenario and although it was not the biggest, the party going on there definitely pulled many people from other stages just to see what was this fantastic and addictive sound. He played many songs from the album “Chez Mezerg“, which, from our point of view, is the one that should be first listened to if you are new to Mezerg. It is a perfect craft of a summary of what you can expect when you see Mezerg live. Especially if you manage to see him play “Riders of the storm“, “PianoBoomBoom” and “Blu-Tack“, you will be witnessing how he turns the audience into a massive dancing party in a couple of minutes. From there, get ready to rumble because there is no going back.

LOS BITCHOS

This band is from London and still, quite international! Conformed by Serra Petale from Australia, Agustina Ruiz from Uruguay, Josefine Jonsson from Sweden, and Nic Crawshaw from Scotland, did an outstanding presentation of psychedelic cumbia sound. With their second album “Talkie Talkie” recently out of the oven, we could dance to their psychedelic surf! They had an amazing setlist as well, starting with “FFS” from their first album “Let the Festivities Begin!” followed by “Hi!” and “Lindsay Goes Down Under”. And although we would have loved to see them play for a bit longer, they continued playing songs like “La Bomba”, “Las Panteras” and “Tripping at a Party”.

We loved their energy and vibe throughout all the concert and also the fact that after they played, they were also enjoying the Festivities Festival and even talking and taking pictures with the fans. We really hope to see them play again soon. Thank you Los Bitchos!

ALVVAYS

One of the loudest fan-based choruses happened in the Beefeater stage. This stage was not the biggest nor the smallest, some people in the crowd mentioned that this stage was for ¨rising stars¨, for bands that are not so famous yet. We do not believe that this is quite accurate. We like to keep in mind that some of the bands are more known in certain regions than others. The usual thing to happen is to be well known in your home town first. In some cases, this hometown might even be on a different continent. In this case, despite the fact that this is not the first time they tour in Europe, Alvvays, with 3 studio albums, has managed to get a great fan base outside their home in Canada!

It is well known that a couple of tragedies have happened to the band which makes us realize what a miracle it is to have a band like Alvvays to exist. Especially when tunes like “Dreams Tonite” were played in which the voice of Molly can make you feel like a million kilometers away in your own little world while singing along with thousands of fans. You don’t need to go to sleep to feel like you are already in a dream with Alvvays. Leading singer Molly Rankin keeps amazing with her voice which in junction with Kerri, Alec, and Sheridan connects the lyrics, melody, and technical skills in such a magical manner, that it is impossible not to have a moment of singing as loud as possible with many of their songs. One of them, which we are sure the chorus sang by the fans was so loud that the band could not hear themselves play anymore. I am talking about the incredible song “Archie, Marry Me”, which. If you have heard about Alvvays and have never seen them live, we recommend you to be on the hunt for their next presentation near your local record store! and if you have never heard about them, we recommend you listen to them. You can start with Alvvays and Antisocialites.

On our side, although we could not see all the bands, we had the opportunity to watch Dharmacide and we would like to recommend it to you. Here is the whole concert.

For more information about other bands and many other songs in each playlist, we recommend you to have a look to the Setlist from all the different bands that played in BBK here. Definitely a great way to discover new music!

Last but not least, we want to mention that the people in the festival are super friendly. We are not talking about just the Staff, which, we want to thank to, they were always kind and friendly. In this case, we want to mention that the people in general were very friendly. A vast majority indeed from Spain, but still people from many places around the globe. This reminds us once again about the power of music and the feelings it can detonate among fans. There is no need for you to be fluent in Spanish or Euskera to enjoy this amazing festival. Be ready! You might even meet new friends over there 🙂