Tucked into the hills of Kobetamendi in the Basque country – where more rain falls than in Manchester – is Bilbao BBK Live, one of Europe’s most eclectic and shapeshifting festivals. It’s a multi-generational affair. Walk through the gates, and there’s a sea of low-waist jeans, chunky belts, and tiny-bag-toting Gen Zs – but so too the occasional walking stick, and a handful of toddlers in prams.
Thursday’s line up features a laidback opening: a dreamy set from American indie-pop band Japanese Breakfast, led by frontwoman Michelle Zauner, on the festival’s main Nagusia stage. San Miguel, slightly smaller, hosts the raspy, soulful vocals of Michael Kiwanuka; the Mercury Prize winner’s mesmerising “Love and Hate” and “Cold Little Lies” have the audience swaying in the setting sun. As the dark descends, out burst Pulp, riding the wave of a Britpop revival and the release of More, their first album in 24 years, last month. Opening with “Spike Island”, Jarvis Cocker channels his supply-teacher aura and unapologetically jerky movements into a captivating and endearing stage presence. “Acrylic Afternoons” and “Mis-Shapes” are peppered with distinctly English attempts at Basque and Spanish – recited while hunched over, reading from a sheet. Before finishing on “Common People”, the eccentric musician asks for chocolates to be handed out to the crowd.
