Cuando lo vivas, lo entenderás.

Bizitzen duzunean, ulertuko duzu.

When you live it, you will understand.#BilbaoBBKLive pic.twitter.com/4Icf5nZhPd

— Bilbao BBK Live (@bilbaobbklive) November 28, 2023

The festival, set in the mountainous Basque city of Bilbao in Northern Spain, will run from 11 July to 13 July 2024. The annual event can trace its origins back to 2006 and is held on a special complex built specifically for the festival on the slopes of Mount Cobetas. Last year’s edition featured the likes of Artic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine, Idles, Róisín Murphy and Pavement, and cemented the festival as one of the best on the European music festival circuit.

Watch the music video for the classic track “Firestarter” by The Prodigy below:

Big beat pioneers The Prodigy will make Bilbao BBK Live their fourth summer festival appearance, after it was announced that they will be playing Reading and Leeds 2024 along with Hellfest and Isle of Wight festival. Meanwhile the festival is scheduled to be cult trip hop collective Massive Attack’s only summer outing, with the group last performing at Connect festival in Edinburgh in the summer of 2022.

Watch the music video for “Unfinished Sympathy” by Massive Attack below:

Canadian indie rock outfit Arcade Fire are also set for a busy summer after attaining headline slots at not only Bilbao BBK Live 2024 but also Shaky Knees in Atlanta and both South American editions of Lollapalooza in Brazil and Chile.

Watch the music video for “The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire below:

See below for the full line-up of Bilbao BBK Live 2024:

Airu, Alvvays, Arcade Fire, Cymande, Death From Above 1979, Derby Motoreta’s Burrito Kachimba, El Columpio Asesino, Ezra Collective, Floating Points, Folamour (A/V), Jimena Amarilo, Jordan Rakei, JPEGMafia, Jungle, Khruangbin, Los Bitchos, Massive Attack, Mulatu Astatke, Nerve Agent, Noname, Overmono, Parcels, Queralt Lahoz, Ralphie Choo, Sen Senra, Shinova, The Prodigy, Underworld, Zea Mays.

Tickets for the event will be available for general sale this Friday 1 December from 9am and will be available to purchase here.

Photo credit: Sharon Alagna

The event, on Saturday 2nd September, will see Manchester City Centre effectively transformed into a festival ground, with multiple live music venues, scattered up and down, being employed as stages. The Albert Hall, on Peter Street, will act as main stage, while other venues, such as YES, Gorilla, the 02 Ritz, Canvas, Manchester Academy 2 and Deaf Institute, will act as the other, smaller stages.

Headlining Manchester Psych Fest 2023 will be American psychedelic rock legends The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who will be the last band to perform on the night at the Albert Hall. Fans of the psychedelic rock genre will need no introduction to BJM and the great Anton Newcombe who fronts the group, a group who, to this day, continue to be an ever-evolving vehicle for musical experimentation, having released their 20th studio album, The Future Is Your Past, in February this year.

Another main act comes in the form of American singer-songwriter Ezra Furman, who has previously said this will be her last European tour for a while. As such, this will be one of the last chances British fans will get to see Furman live in the flesh for the time being, and will therefore be a show not to be missed. She will be playing at the 02 Ritz and will be the last act at that venue.

Other acts that will feature at this year’s Psych fest include The Kundalini Genie, Allah-Las, The Lovely Eggs and Flamingods, all of whom are psychedelic rock groups. English indie rock band Sorry will be in attendance, as will the predominantly instrumental Cumbia-inspired London group Los Bitchos. Noise punk outfit Benefits will raise pulses in the White Noise room at Canvas, while post-punk bands Deadletter and The Murder Capital will electrify elsewhere.

A rather late addition to the line-up are The Murlocs, an Australian rock band hailing from Melbourne. They will play at the 02 Ritz at 4.30pm. This will not be the only show, however, for Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Cook Craig, frontman and guitarist respectively, as the talented duo are also an integral part of fellow Australian group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, another group who needs no introduction to the fan of the psychedelic rock genre. The latter group will also be performing in Manchester on the same night, with a headline midnight gig at the Manchester Academy. The show, unfortunately, is not technically part of the festival and separate tickets are required to see the Aussie psych rock heavyweights.

There will also be several film screenings in addition to the multitude of music options, including a UK festival exclusive screening of Chunky Scrapnel, a road movie featuring King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Dig!, a documentary on the love/hate relationship between American groups The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols.

You can purchase tickets here.

Stages and set times below:

Albert Hall
Sorry – 14.00 – 14.45
The Lovely Eggs – 15.15 – 16.00
Allah-Las – 16.30 – 17.30
Los Bitchos – 18.15 – 19.15
Snail Mail – 20.00 – 21.00
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – 21.45 – 23.15

The 02 Ritz
The Mysterines – 13.00 – 14.00
Jeffrey Lewis – 14.45 – 15.45
The Murlocs – 16.30  – 17.30
Bodega – 18.15 – 19.15
Loose Articles – 20.00 – 20.45
The Murder Capital – 21.30 – 22.45
Ezra Furman – 23.30 – 00.45

Ritz Basement
Atmos Bloom – 14.00 – 14.30
Lei Hope – 15.45 – 16.15
No Windows – 17.30 – 18.00
Cruush – 19.15 – 19.45
The Kundalini Genie – 20.45 – 21.15

Manchester Academy 2
Teke :: Teke – 15.15 – 16.00
The Underground Youth – 16.45 – 17.45
Panic Shack – 18.30 – 19.15
Flamingods – 20.00 – 21.00
Kokoko! – 21.45 – 22.45

Canvas Room 1
Viji – 14.15 – 14.45
Pray For Mojo – 15.30 – 16.15
University – 17.00 – 17.45
Benefits – 18.30 – 19.15
Say She She – 20.00 – 20.45
BDRMM – 21.30 – 22.45
Maruja – 23.30 – 00.15
Stealing Sheep – 01.00 – 02.00

Sports Team’s annual Margate trips are infamous in the indie scene; they hire a bus from London and take a rabble rousing bunch on a trip to the sunny Kent coast. This year, Sports Team are doing it in style – they’ve recruited a fantastic line up and the event is now an all-dayer across two venues.

Alex Rice and co have curated quite the lineup for 2021’s seaside holiday. Post-punk upstarts TV Priest are hot off their debut, ‘Uppers’, an in-your-face, raucous album jam-packed with songs to get the pit going. Courting are on the bill, who’s superb EP ‘Grand National’ dropped a matter of weeks ago. Both of these bands have a cult following of dedicated fans – Margate ’21 tickets are going to sell fast!

English Teacher are one of the most exciting additions to the bill: their band of melodic, spoken word indie will strike a chord with Dry Cleaning fans. A further addition is instrumental groove aficionados Los Bitchos, who dropped two superb singles in 2019. There are some DJ sets included, from Golf Ahias, Billie Martin and indie legend and cheif Maccabee, Orlando Weeks.

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Sports Team themselves are fresh from the release of new track, ‘Happy (God’s Own Country’), which is a brilliant, frantic, two minute snapshot of English life and a satire on Tory Britain. The Margate bus trip is bound to be an exciting post-lockdown party for any indie fan. Each of the bands on this bill bring their own niche and the day will surely be full of fun, cans and indie bangers.

Sports Team are also due to play a lengthy UK tour, kicking off in Manchester this winter. They’re stopping off at cities country wide to tour debut album ‘Deep Down Happy’.