Mundaka Festival, music and gastronomy in paradise.

Urdaibai, a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, hosts the Mundaka Festival, an annual event that fuses the best of international music with the gastronomic culture of the Basque Country.

Year after year, the Santa Katalina peninsula of Mundaka hosts one of the most striking music festivals on the international scene. The three pillars of Mundaka Festival, music, gastronomy and nature, provide all lovers of good music a luxury proposal in our land. Thanks to the dimensions of the enclosure, the environment, the closeness of the organizers and the musical groups that visit Mundaka Festival year after year, this event has become a must on the calendar. We invite you to make Urdaibai your venue for an unforgettable weekend, here is information, proposals and some advice to complete the program proposed by Mundaka Festival.

Mundaka Festival is the event that best represents the way of life of the Basque people, a perfect showcase, where our beloved coast and the gastronomic products of the area make clear part of our identity. Mountain, sea, gastronomy, culture and a very special climate make this festival different from any other.

Surf, mountain, beach, eat, party, sleep and repeat, a simple proposal to which you can add all kinds of experiences such as guided tours, active tourism activities or anything else you can think of, paradise is at your feet.

History: A different, unique festival. This story that began in 2015 with the first edition of Mundaka Festival, made clear the direction of the festival and the commitment to the extra values that brings our land, culture and history. Some premises, which are still being maintained and working since then. The Festival has the strategic support of the rural development agency of Urdaibai as well as local companies in the food sector as Itsasmendi or Echebastar, a support that gives more strength to the local, to what is ours.

Festival: When we had not yet practically got rid of the festival hangover of Bilbao BBk Live, we are assaulted by the program of Mundaka Festival, two very similar and very different events that complement the musical offerings offered in the summer festivals of our towns and cities. Among the posters of this event there have been groups of great international level but we always find some Basque group, one of our own, a detail that always helps to make our culture known to the people who visit us. We must take into account that Mundaka Festival keeps among its achievements the awards of best medium format festival and the revelation festival of the year, it must be for something.

Environment: Being in a place like Urdaibai, not taking care of the environment would be a real madness, a suicide. So remember, the different containers scattered around the site are not for decoration, recycle and take care of the environment.

Gastronomy: We are tired of seeing how the most famous festivals on the planet hire the services of large food chains to satisfy the hunger of their attendees. In this sense, we have found in Mundaka Festival a musical event with our same gastronomic ideology: local product and traditional elaboration. Of course, although the organization announces it with great fanfare before, during and after the festival, we wanted to attest to the gastronomic offer. So, on the first day of the festival we went to the restaurant area, where we found beef burger, sausages and grilled tuna from Echebastar as possible candidates for our dinner. Finding ourselves between the port of Mundaka and Bermeo, it seemed sacrilege not to opt for tuna, so, said and done, tuna for dinner.

We were expecting good quality, but we found one of the best grilled tuna dishes we have tasted, just right, lightly cooked, well salted and cooked with a concoction that we would have liked to know its composition. Take note, in Mundaka Festival you can eat a hell of a tuna, not tasting it is a shame, you choose. Remember that the payment system of the gastronomic area is based on a single point of payment where they give us the tickets with which we will later order the food.

Prices: The rates of Mundaka Festival, either in the aspect of the subscriptions or in the gastronomic aspect maintain a good value for money, nothing prohibitive prices. Comparisons are odious, yes, we know, but compare the prices we are going to show you below with any other festival that comes to your mind and draw your own conclusions.

It is clear that this is a medium format festival, but even so, the value for money of all its services is more than acceptable.

Experiences: Tastings of local wines, tasting of local products, workshops and showcookings will take place during the 3 days of the festival. These experiences are intended to raise awareness of the potential of one of the basic pillars of Mundaka Festival, gastronomy. In addition, we will have the opportunity to buy Basque products in the exhibition and sales area, as if it were a small festival azoka. As a stellar experience, we must highlight the “Ronqueo”, the traditional quartering of tuna, which has been carried out this year and has been a great success.

Environment: The location of Mundaka Festival is a key piece in the development of this event in Bizkaia, one of the most beautiful places in Euskadi, a paradise called Urdaibai. Urdaibai was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1984, a magical place where Basque culture has a strong presence. The 22 municipalities of the reserve, the left wave of Mundaka, the beaches, the mountains, our culture and history are undoubtedly part of the success of this festival. The Santa Katalina Peninsula is an impressive setting to enjoy good music. Surrounded mostly by the sea, this jewel of nature shows us the natural entrance of Urdaibai, a space that has an incredible landscape and ecological diversity. If you doubt it, you can go to Urdaibai Bird Center or Ekoetxea Urdaibai (former Torre Madariaga) and ask the people in charge. If you want to opt for a good, nice and cheap solution, do not miss our article about the boat trips from Bermeo offered by the company Hegaluze.

Although there are organizations that oppose the celebration of Mundaka Festival for infringing the Urdaibai regulations, in our opinion, as long as all the rules established by the organization are respected, the damage caused by the festival on the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve is minimal. An opinion that is argued by the Basque seal “Erronka Gerbia”, an IHOBE certificate that recognizes the events that integrate the necessary environmental measures to ensure that the damage to nature is minimal, thus obtaining the title of the first sustainable festival in the Basque Country.

How to get there: By car, motorcycle, train, bus, boat… of course, there are no options. From the organization insist on using public transport, a recommendation that is supported by the special schedules that exist for trains linking Mundaka with the capital of Bizkaia. As for buses, Bizkaibus, offers several alternatives through its lines A3515 and A3527.

Although Mundaka is a small town where parking spaces are scarce, it is possible to park in some corners (respecting at all times the traffic ordinances), in case you can not find a place you can go to the various parking lots that the organization has in Bermeo or Sukarrieta, two parking lots that are located next to the stops of Euskotren (Basque public service of narrow-gauge rail transport).

We invite you to get to know Mundaka Festival first hand and give your opinion about your experience in this article, as we say around here…ondo pasa!