BIME, Bizkaia International Music Experience.

Bizkaia International Music Experience (BIME), one of the last great musical events of the year in Bizkaia.

Bizkaia International Music Experience, popularly known by its acronym, BIME, is one of the last great musical events of the year in Bizkaia. A must-attend event for every good music lover. Each edition of BIME attracts thousands of people to Bilbao, consolidating it as one of the best indoor music festivals that exist today. Although it is not an ordinary festival (BIME also hosts the only European fair aimed at the music industry so far), this festival that floods the venues of Bilbao and the BEC with high quality music, has slipped into the list of the most anticipated music festivals of the year in Bizkaia. More than 50 artists, more than 60 activities and more than 20,000 attendees give life to BIME during the 3 days in which its complete program is implemented.

BIME is based at the BEC (Bilbao Exhibition Center), the trade fair of Bilbao, a multipurpose, modern and central space, which amazes all attendees who visit it. Nowadays it is difficult to find a music festival with the quality of services offered by the BEC, a luxury venue. It is not the first time that we talk about the different music festivals that we find in the province of Bizkaia, we have already talked about Bilbao BBK Live and Mundaka Festival, events that today we complement with this article about the BIME festival. Each of them offers us to know a unique space of our land from which to enjoy what really unites us, music.

Thanks to Last Tour, organizer of BIME, Euskadi is once again a leader in culture. BIME Pro, one of the 3 branches that make up this festival, is the first European fair aimed specifically at the music and digital industry. This kind of small music congress where you can enjoy lectures, networking and other activities, offers a luxury opportunity to join ties between national and international music professionals.

BIME has reinvented the format of the music festivals we knew so far to accommodate the professionals who make this world possible. A very special event, which is divided into 3 different sections: BIME Live, BIME Pro and BIME City. 3 spaces created specifically for 3 different profiles but with a common denominator: music.

As we have mentioned, this music festival that is usually held in October, revolves around 3 axes: BIME Live (music festival), BIME Pro (music industry fair) and BIME City (performances in the main venues of Bilbao). And although all of them are of great importance, the BIME Live line-up usually captures all the attention.

Festival: Although BIME City is always attractive to the eyes of everyone who comes to BIME, the word festival in its purest definition, only encompasses BIME Live. This festival hosts for 2 nights some of the most important artists of the music scene while the future promises that precede them do it in some of the best known venues in Bilbao for free. A festival in which local and international groups enter the scene among which stand out artists of the stature of Placebo, Imagine Dragons, Los Planetas, The Prodigy or Franz Ferninand among others.

Gastronomy: Although we were not lucky enough to enjoy the “Foodtrucks” area, the gastronomic area of BIME, we are sure that some of the proposals offered will be to your liking. They may not be at the same level as the grilled tuna that we enjoyed at Mundaka festival, but it sure is not bad at all.

Location: BIME Pro and Live take place at the BEC, at the Bilbao Exhibition Center. A multipurpose and modern space that provides a luxury location for the festival. The large number of connections it has with public transport together with the services of lockers, toilets, parking and security offered by this Basque space makes it perfect for this type of event. As an anecdote, we have to say that we met more than one person who was photographing the toilets of the BEC. Curious, isn’t it? Rarely, the bathrooms of a music festival are usually as big and clean as those of the BEC, but taking pictures of the bathrooms of a festival is curious to say the least. Comfort first and foremost. BIME City concerts are held in different venues in Bilbao, in the center. The usual venues are: Kafe Antzokia, Azkena, Stage Live, Shake, La Ribera, Bilborock, Balcón de la Lola or Hika Ateneo among others.

How to get there: As we have already mentioned, the BIME Pro and Live venue is located in Barakaldo, less than 5 minutes from the center of Bilbao by car and less than 15 minutes by any other means of transport. The public transport that offers the best frequencies, the fastest and most competitive prices to reach our destination is the Bilbao Metro. If you finally decide for this transport, know that the stop where you have to get off is Ansio (line 2), you can’t miss it, the metro exit is right in front of the Bilbao Exhibition Center. For the BIME City concerts, the closest metro stops are Abando and Casco Viejo.

Depending on how many trips you are going to make, it may be worthwhile to get the “barik” transport card, especially for convenience.

We leave you the link to our article about Bilbao Airport in case you decide to come by plane to BIME:“Bilbao Airport (BIO), how to get there, where to park and much more“.

Where to park: Both in the surroundings and in the BEC itself, we find a good number of parking lots where we can park our vehicles. Unfortunately, all of them are paid parking lots. Faced with this, we have 3 options: BEC parking (official parking), parking in OTA (traffic ordinance that regulates parking) or parking further away for free.

Where to sleep: As mentioned above, the proximity of the BEC to the center of Bilbao is such that it is not worth looking for a hotel in Barakaldo. We recommend looking among the hostels, hotels and tourist apartments in Bilbao, most of them are perfectly connected to the BEC and we will also have the opportunity to enjoy the concerts proposed by BIME City near our accommodation. Unfortunately, during BIME all the accommodations in Bilbao tend to slightly increase their prices. But luckily, nowadays this effect is not as noticeable as with Bilbao BBK Live. We recommend booking in advance to avoid paying more than the bill and to avoid staying in the rooms that have the worst quality-price ratio.

Ticket price: The price of BIME season tickets varies from the moment they go on sale (previous year’s festival) until the festival itself is held. Thus, it is normal to find 2-day tickets from 48 € to more than 65 € that can reach the days before the start of BIME. But as you know, the prices of music festivals also depend on the success of the line-up they present, so talking about specific prices is usually pure fantasy. We should mention that the professional days do not give access to the festival, but there is a reduced rate that merges both events.

Last tour: BIME has the signature of the company Last Tour, one of the most powerful music promoters in our environment. Thanks to its good work in the promotion, development and organization of concerts and festivals, it has managed to raise several Basque festivals (Azkena Rock Festival, Bilbao BBK Live or Donostia Kutxa Kultur Festivala among others) to the international orbit of festivals.

Wristbands: Like most music festivals, BIME uses smart wristbands or electronic bracelets to make payments for all its services and control access to the venue. This type of wristbands contain a small chip with RFID/NFC technology that controls quickly, safely and efficiently any management we want to do during the festival. Although we are sure that most of you are already familiar with this type of wristbands, we are going to give you some basic notions about how to use them:

Stages: In addition to the stages spread throughout Bilbao on the occasion of BIME City, at the BEC we find 4 other stages: Thunder Bitch, Heineken, Antzerkia and Gaua. The first 3, host all the concerts of the program, while the last one, “Gaua”, offers a space where you can enjoy the festival until the wee hours of the morning thanks to the DJs who will remind us of the origins of electronic music.

Bilbao: We encourage you to get to know Bilbao during the free hours left by the festival. We even encourage you to take advantage of the trip and extend it for a few days, it is really worth it. We leave you the link to our article on what to see in Bilbao so you can enjoy our architecture, culture, history, traditions and gastronomy to the fullest. What to see in Bilbao in 1 day, 2 days or 3 days.

BIME has become on its own merits one of the biggest winter festivals in Europe, a festival, which although it does not reach the public that has its big brother, Bilbao BBK Live, has many faithful among national and international fans of Indie, Pop, electronic and rock music.