In partnership with Bilbao BBK Live
Words: Lisa Wright
Celebrating its 20th anniversary year, Bilbao BBK Live was always going to aim high. But over three stacked days of music and magic under the sweltering Basque Country sun, pilgrims who made it up the slope of Mount Cobetas to the festival’s gorgeously scenic site have had their cup well and truly filled.
Over one of the summer weekender’s most eclectic line ups yet, we’ve seen FKA Twigs bring the hedonism of ‘Eusexua’ to Spain and Robbie Williams turn the main stage into a one-man cabaret. CMAT – yet again – cemented her place at the absolute peak of the entertainment pack, while David Byrne gave Friday night a heartwarmingly feel-good send off.
There have been raves in the woods and secret sets on the hill, inter-artist love-ins (we’re looking at you CMAT and Robbie) and a bubbling undercurrent of World Cup mania amidst all the on-stage fun. So, as we say goodbye to a landmark year for the region’s biggest and best fest, all that’s left is to look back on the action during its final, cathartic Saturday night.
Happy anniversary Bilbao BBK Live, and here’s to the next 20 years…
If aliens descended and wanted to know why us humans were so obsessed with festivals, we’d show them a video of IDLES’ mustachioed guitarist Mark Bowen, crowdsurfing in a bright pink dress/ hospital gown, white y-fronts on full show, yelling the chorus to immigration-positive unity anthem ‘Danny Nedelko’. The mid-set moment was de rigeur for the Bristol band, who’ve spent the last decade decimating festival stages of increasing size with unrelenting energy. But even now, almost 10 years on since debut ‘Brutalism’ introduced the quintet to the world, it’s impossible not to be winded by the sheer ferocity and power that the group can whip up live.
Taking to the main stage at 11pm, they began with new song ‘Levitator’, its direct and visceral guitars backed by call to arms lyrics from frontman Joe Talbot: “Violence is majestic coming from a righteous rage/ Violence is majestic when you’re coming of age.” From there, it was straight down to the crowd for Bowen during ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’, while ‘Mother’ saw Talbot change its line from “the best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich” to “the best way to scare a fascist”, presumably catering for the festival’s European audience.
Playing after New York titans Interpol’s main stage set earlier in the evening, Talbot shouted out the band as a major influence. “It’s a dream to share a stage with one of the main reasons I’m in a band, Interpol and [touring member] Matt from The Walkmen,” he declared. “It’s a huge privilege and a fucking dream.” Meanwhile, the aforementioned ‘Danny Nedelko’ came preceded by a dedication to “all the immigrants that make our countries a better place, for the Basque people, and for three members of IDLES”.
A blistering set that provided the weekend’s gnarliest sonic moments and a true, life-affirming gut punch of noise, IDLES are clearly entering the run-up to LP6 match fit and on peak form.
When Lily Allen first began debuting her ‘West End Girl’ show – less a traditional pop extravaganza and more a considered theatre piece, replete with precisely zero old hits – the reaction was mixed. In a three star review of her London Palladium opening night, NME stated that “at points, it is clear that these are her first shows back after seven years and there are still some kinks to be ironed out”. However, coming on slightly late for her 12.15am set on the San Miguel stage, Allen seemed to have loosened up and eased into her reprised role at the front of British pop.
Having toured the ‘West End Girl’ show around UK arenas and a handful of festivals, the precise, staged concept naturally remained but Allen herself appeared confident and more playful than in those first shows. There was still no audience interaction, but ‘Ruminating’ was delivered like a proper pop hit, while ‘Nonmonogamummy’’s TikTok-style dance was performed in full tongue-in-cheek (or rather tongue cheekily sticking out) mode, complete with a ‘50s apron emblazoned with the word ‘CUCK’.
Allen’s costume designer has clearly been having a blast on this tour, and her outfits have been getting more extravagant by the show. As well as the risqué apron, Bilbao saw Allen sporting a pair of vajazzled baby blue shorts for ‘Pussy Palace’, and a pin-up style body suit that she playfully gyrated in during ‘Sleepwalking’. Add the already-iconic receipts dress, Duane Reade bag and Madonna-nodding cone bra dress, and Allen looked like the pop icon she is – even whilst performing a more considered, theatrical show piece. Ending by receiving a bunch of flowers and then throwing them into the crowd, it was by no means a classic midnight festival set, but the power of Allen’s break-up masterstroke won through.
It may have been a scorching 35 degrees in Bilbao, but try telling Interpol that. Perfecting the ‘goths in a heatwave’ aesthetic, the New York City outfit cut a dapper silhouette in classic all-black – with singer Paul Banks sporting a platinum blonde slicked back ‘do as they powered through a career-spanning early evening set. With a low-hanging disco ball and flickering, subtle lights dancing around them, the band leaned heavily on their early two LPs, 2002’s ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ and 2004’s ‘Antics’, serving up a mid-set one-two of ‘Evil’ and ‘Obstacle 1’ and getting the mosh pit started with ‘Slow Hands’.
Over on the Johnnie Walker stage, viral Turin duo Mind Enterprises drew one of the most packed sets of the weekend, with the crowd spilling way out of the tent and into the field for their quirky Italo-disco bangers. Formed of duo Andrea Tirone and Roberto Conigliaro – one in business casual shirt and trousers; the other in a tiny pair of blue shorts – their vibe was like Italy’s answer to Getdown Services: knowingly odd and all sorts of fun, but with undeniably crowd-uniting genuine musical chops too.
If you’ve never seen a woman, dressed as a horse, playing panpipes then you clearly didn’t do the final night of Bilbao BBK Live 2026 right. That was the trippy visual that beamed out from the screen behind Stella Stallion – aka HorsegiirL – as the half human/ half equine DJ took to the Repsol stage for a late night set to close out the festival. Manning the decks in front of a circular video montage ranging from the blissed out (aquatic scenes for ‘That’s My Beach!’) to the ridiculous (did we mention the panpipes?), HorsegiirL’s club-heavy set was a fittingly equal mix of brilliance and madness. That meant that, as well as cuts from recent debut LP ‘Nature is Healing’ – a record that NME described in a four-star review as “balancing sincerity with HorsegiirL’s whimsy for an album of stone-cold bangers” – we got a barnstorming Pitbull remix and Reel 2 Real’s ‘I Like To Move It’. Happily, the up-for-it party crowd obliged.
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