With the capital city of Bizkaia region, in the Basque Country, having been named European City of the Year at the 2018 Urbanism Awards, the next months are filled with major events, galas and international meetings to take place in Bilbao.
Some of the headquarters of the events will definitely be the famous Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Bilbao Exhibition Center or the Euskalduna Palace – Palace where the first event of the year will take place on February 14th and 15th: the world congress of economic activities and businesses that move around football, the World Football Summit. Also in sports, San Mamés stadium, home of Athletic Bilbao, will host the European Finals of Rugby on May 11th and 12th. Most of the audience is said to come from Britain, France and Ireland. There are already 16,000 tickets sold for both finals of the European Champions Cup and the European Challenge Cup.
In May, the Guggenheim Museum will host the presentation gala of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2018. The Basque region of Spain is home to four of the restaurants on this year’s 50 Best list of the “Oscar Awards” in gastronomy. “Spain’s Basque Country has long been known as one of the most gastronomically blessed regions of the world, with the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants per capita and a strong and enduring representation in the list” the World’s 50 Best Academy says.
Among the annual events in Bilbao, the Biennial Fair of the Machine Tool (May 28th to June 1st) will have its 30th edition, presenting new technologies from all over the world. From May 31st to June 2nd, El Sol Festival, the biggest and oldest Ibero-American Advertising Communication Festival, will bring to Bilbao, as every year, thousands of professionals from over 20 countries in Europe and Latin America. From the many events of El Sol, The Art of Telling Stories in 20 Seconds or the International Unseen Film Festival are among the highlights. Also in June, the most important European conference on equality, diversity and inclusion, CEMR, will take place from 11th and 13th.
Come summer, it is the turn of leisure and festivals. One more year, the BBK Live will fill Bilbao, in July, with music lovers from all corners of the world. And Aste Nagusia de Bilbao brings, for 9 days in a row, in August, the best of Basque traditions and culture.
The year ends with a major event, the Europe Music Awards Gala, the European awards of MTV music chain, on November 4th at the Bilbao Exhibition Center.