Aste Nagusia: A week that lasts 9 days

We spent a week in Bilbao in 2019 during the first month of our “travel sabbatical”. Unbeknownst to us before our arrival, our week in the city would coincide with Bilbao’s annual festival, Aste Nagusia. [In fact, we only realized this coincidence as we settled into our rental on the first evening and heard the fireworks starting.] 

We participated fully in the festivities and loved it. We bought edalontziak (reusable plastic cups that allow you to carry beverages wherever you go) and drank kalimotxo at all hours. We followed local groups through Casco Viejo as they played traditional Basque instruments and sang folk songs in Euskera. We positioned ourselves along the river every evening for the fireworks show before joining the party in the txosnas.

When we departed Bilbao on the last day of Aste Nagusia 2019, we were ready for tranquility. But, we vowed to return in the future. [We had hoped to pair this with a trip to Dublin in 2021, where Nebraska was scheduled to open the college football season. Unfortunately, Covid didn’t allow that itinerary to happen.] In the end, it would take moving to Bilbao for us to return to Aste Nagusia.

Aste Nagusia: Key Facts

• Aste Nagusia means Semana Grande/Big Week in Euskera. 
• Aste Nagusia always begins on the Saturday after August 15. 
• Although aste means week, the festival actually lasts nine days, starting on a Saturday and ending on the following Sunday.
• Similar to other festivals in Euskadi, attendees traditionally dress in white shirts and blue bottoms and wear a blue pañuelo. 

Marijaia has been the symbol of Aste Nagusia since 1979. She is dressed in traditional Basque attire and, because she is always dancing, her arms are permanently raised. Marijaia traverses the streets constantly throughout Aste Nagusia, often appearing alongside different musical groups. 

The official song of Aste Nagusia is called Badator Marijaia. Nearly every txosna plays this song as soon as the nightly fireworks end, and the crowds always dance and sing along. Marijaia has also been featured on every year’s Aste Nagusia poster since her introduction 45 years ago. 

An important element of Aste Nagusia is the nightly fireworks show. For the first seven nights, this is a competition, with companies from multiple continents being invited to participate. This year there were competitors from other Spanish regions [Valencia, Las Canarias], European countries [Italy, the Netherlands], and Latin America [Colombia, Mexico].

Monday night’s show was presented by a Colombian company. We’d been made aware of this in advance by a bartender from Colombia at our beloved local, Ereaga. It was wonderful to see the Colombians celebrate their heritage on the evening of their display. They dressed in the Colombian soccer jersey and tailgated the event with empanadas and local beverages. 

As the week progressed, we quickly found ourselves critiquing the nightly displays and wishing we had access to the rubric that the judges utilized to score them. We also found that the quality of the night’s display quickly became a topic of conversation when we encountered our neighbors. In the end, Italy, who presented on the final night of the competition, won. While we enjoyed their display, it was not our favorite. We’d have given our prize to the Mexican team who presented their show earlier in the week.

A key element of las fiestas are the txosnas, which are set up along the ría between the Puente Arenal and Puente Ayuntamiento. A txosna is a large, temporary bar that is affiliated with a comparsa. Comparsas are the societies that are responsible for bringing Aste Nagusia to life every year.

Most of the comparsas participate in daily cooking competitions, and their members typically eat the group’s entry for lunch every afternoon. Outside of this, the txosnas serve beverages and blast music at all hours during las fiestas. [Most days the music starts around 12:00pm and doesn’t end until after 6:00am the following morning.] 

An important part of every txosna’s design is the comparsa’s desired message. Each txosna is decorated with a mural depicting this message. Given the political leanings of País Vasco, these themes are typically quite progressive. This year’s messages included commitments to  feminism, support for Palestinian liberation, and opposition to the expansion of the Guggenheim into the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve.

Traditional Basque sports, Herri Kirolak, are showcased with daily demonstrations during Aste Nagusia. [While we didn’t catch any of these, you can read about these sports in my earlier post.] This is also the only time when Bullfights are held in Bilbao. [We attended one five years ago. Though, we left before it ended and vowed to never attend another.] Luckily there are plenty of other opportunities to view sports during las fiestas! 

On the first Sunday there was a rowing regatta, which showcased a men’s and women’s competition. Unlike the Regatta de los Ingengieros, a competition between two local university squads, there were a significant number of teams who competed in the Aste Nagusia Regatta. Additionally, instead of racing from one location to another, as they did in the aforementioned Regatta, this was a timed competition, where each team competed against the clock in a set number of laps.

There was also a special Aste Nagusia Pelotavasco tournament. This tournament showcased both pelotamano, a sport whose contest we’d attended previously, and palo, which is played in the same fronton with players using a small wooden racket instead of their hand. We hoped to attend a palo match during las fiestas. However, they’re much less common and the tickets sold-out before we could buy them.

We instead attended another set of pelotamano matches. The Aste Nagusia match-ups were much more competitive than those that we’d observed in April and the crowd was much more raucous. [Though we’re unsure if this is due to the higher quality of the matches or the copious amounts of kalimotxo that had been consumed throughout the day.]