The only thing mountainous about festivals these days seems to be the price. Hand over a small fortune, and it’ll get you a square metre in a sodden field. Once you’ve paid £7.50 for a carton of over-salty noodles, it all gets a bit ridiculous. No wonder, then, that Spain is leading the European festival boom. Sensationally good line-ups, dependable sun, and a location perched at the foot of the Kobetamendi mountain overlooking Bilbao, makes Bilbao BBK the annoyingly talented-at-everything little brother to big-guns Benicassim and Primavera. Bilbao love this festival so much that they custom-built a festival site - that’s how much the Basque-country like to party.
They like booking a varied range of artists too. Blues boy Jamie N Commons and rock duo The Bots represent the most exciting rising talents on offer. TOY, Alt-J, Spector, and The Vaccines have all graduated into the premier league, and as for Biffy Clyro and Two Door Cinema Club, well, back to back they’ll be wrapping up day one in a late night bonanza.
Kings of Leon will also be there – well, they are ubiquitous of the festival circuit. Johnny Borrell will also be strutting up and down, no doubt wearing his nothing-to-the-imagination white skinny jeans. It’s all part of the fun, though, and we especially can’t wait to revert to our angsty and barely teenaged mentality during Green Day’s Saturday night set. Fatboy Slim, Delorean and 2manydjs are there too making sure the dancing goes on all night long.
We’ve put together this handy playlist, chucking together all the best offerings of Bilbao BBK into one place. Have a listen, and we’ll see you at the mountain.
Bilbao BBK takes place on July 11th-13th.
Featuring Yard Act, Death Cab For Cutie, Graham Coxon, Maisie Peters and more.