Promoted by an independent group, the first edition of the festival will be held on October 2 and 3 at the Esplanade of the Bermeo Cemetery, with the sea and Basque mythology as the common thread.
In autumn it comes Xixili Festibalaa music festival that will take place on October 2 and 3 in Bermeo (Bizkaia) with the premise of celebrating Basque culture and local artists in a space for all audiences. The festival, produced by VVSSNN and with the support of the Bermeo City Council, will combine live music, mythology and local identity in a unique enclave in front of the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve.
Xixili Festibala It will have 2 scenarios; The first will be located in the free access area and will host the daytime performances, open to the general public until 5:00 p.m. Kresala Gunea (“sea water zone”); The second, now inside the paid area, will change its identity throughout the day, becoming two different spaces depending on the moment and the musical style: Itsas Soinua Gunea (“sea sound zone”) live bands and Elektronikoa Gunea (“electronic zone”) DJ sessions and electronic music.
The musical program will combine established names from the Basque scene with local and debut talent, combining live bands with electronic sessions in the same night. We already know the first names of the confirmed groups: Iseo & Dodosound, Neomak, Belako, Supercremalleras, Olatz Salvador, Oibaf, Desaint and Ke Lepo & Felix Buff.
The name of the festival pays tribute to Xixilithe sculpture of a lamia that the artist José Luis Butrón installed in 1980 on the Lamerapunte breakwater, in the port of Bermeo. It was promoted by a group of neighbors—among them an architect, a doctor, a chemist and a photographer—with the idea of perpetuating the legend of the Lamiaran lamias. Xixili has a woman’s torso, arms and head, and from the waist down a fish tail topped with two web-footed legs: the feature that distinguishes lamias from mermaids in Basque mythology.
The lamiak are one of the most popular characters in the folklore of Euskal Herria, especially on the coast of Bizkaia: geniuses with a feminine figure who inhabit fountains, rivers and caves, of great beauty, who comb their long hair with gold combs and who, according to tradition, are generous with those who respect them but implacable with those who offend them or try to steal their precious objects. Xixili Festibala It takes its name and its spirit from them: a festival that aspires to be generous with those who visit it and faithful to the land that hosts it.
That same root marks the aesthetics of the festival: the sea, the coast and Xixili itself as a visual imaginary, in an enclave—the Esplanade of the Bermeo Cemetery—with direct views of the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve and the Cantabrian Sea.
The first tickets are now on sale on the festival website (subscriptions at special prices).
