El Arenal will once again be filled with blues on 24, 25 and 26 July with the fifth edition of the Bilbao Blues Festival. This free event, promoted by Bilbao City Council, will bring together big names in the genre, international stars and local talent on its main stage. Headlining the line-up will be the Bilbao All Star Blues Band, a group specially formed for the festival, featuring legendary bassist and vocalist Bob Stroger, winner of the Bilbao Blues Festival award in 2022, Willie Buck (vocals), Teeny Tucker (vocals), Jimi Primetime Smith (guitar), Anthony Geraci (piano), Wes Starr (drums) and Bob Corritore (harmonica).
The programme for this fifth edition will open on 24 July with the Bilbao band The Cherry Boppers accompanied by Patricia Reckless, who are sure to offer a vibrant live performance. Judith Hill, Ivan Singh and Mark Hummel will also perform on the Keler stage, located in the Arenal. These sensational artists will join the Travellin’ Brothers, who will receive the festival’s award for their extensive and successful career.
The second venue of the festival, the Kiosko del Arenal, will be filled with intensity with performances by Blues Train, Ian Siegal and Skyler Saufley, in concerts that bring the audience closer to different aspects of contemporary blues.
THE CHERRY BOOPERS AND PATRICIA RECKLESS – FRIDAY 24 JULY AT 7 PM (KELER STAGE)
For more than 20 years (they formed in 2004), Bilbao-based combo The Cherry Boppers have been champions of rhythm & blues, funk, soul and jazz, and they will be opening the Bilbao Blues Festival. The alliance between the experienced instrumental group and vocalist Patricia Reckless has given rise to the project ‘The Cherry Boppers meet Patricia Reckless’, in which, in their latest work recorded in 2024, they approach powerful soul-funk rhythms and display an energetic live performance that invites you to dance non-stop.
MARK HUMMEL – FRIDAY 24 JULY AT 8:45 PM (KELER STAGE)
Harmonica player and singer Mark Hummel (1955, New Haven, Connecticut) is considered one of the best harmonica players of all time. Hummel visits the Bilbao Blues Festival with his magnificent band, consisting of Anson Funderburgh (guitar), Bob Hall (piano), Ted Bukowski (bass) and Wes Starr (drums). All of them have recorded and shared the stage with legends of the genre, making this band a true blues ‘all-star’ ensemble.
JUDITH HILL FRIDAY 24 JULY AT 10:30 PM (KELER STAGE)
In addition to being a brilliant vocalist, Judith Hill (1984, Los Angeles, California) is an accomplished composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist who can boast of having worked as
a backing singer with artists of the stature of Michael Jackson, Carole King, Prince, George Benson and Elton John, and collaborated with Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder,
Johnny Matis and Gregg Allman, among others. Judith, a Grammy winner, is gifted with a powerful voice and adapts in a versatile way to many genres such as rhythm and blues, funk, jazz and rock with strong blues and gospel influences.
IAN SIEGAL ELECTRIC BAND – SATURDAY 25 JULY AT 12.30 PM (VOLOTEA AREA – ARENAL KIOSK)
British blues vocalist, composer and guitarist Ian Siegal (1971, Portsmouth, United Kingdom) promises a superlative show on stage at the Bilbao Blues Festival with his “Electric Band”. His strength is undoubtedly his live performances, with a stage presence that exudes passion, sweat and lots of energy. Ian Siegal essentially starts from the blues, but also masterfully veers into more rock, country and folk territory. The prestigious magazine MOJO considers him ‘the most intelligent songwriter and most magnetic blues performer in the United Kingdom’. His main awards include two UK Blues Awards, eight British Blues Awards, four European Blues Awards and three nominations for the USA Blues Music Awards.
BLUES TRAIN – SATURDAY 25 JULY AT 2 PM (ESPACIO VOLOTEA-KIOSKO DEL ARENAL)
Blues Train is a powerful blues backing band, made up of established musicians, who accompany great soloists in a touring project with a repertoire of electric blues classics from the 50s and 60s, offering high-quality, rhythmic and spectacular shows. The band is composed of Txako Jones (vocals), Alex Caporuscio (guitar), Mingo Balaguer (harmonica and vocals), Paul San Martin (piano), Jorge Otero ‘Jafo’ (bass and double bass) and Adrián Carrera (drums).
IVAN SINGH – SATURDAY 25 JULY AT 7 PM (KELER STAGE)
From Córdoba (Argentina) to Chicago. That is the blues journey taken by young guitarist and singer Ivan Singh to become one of the most renowned musicians of his generation. His great talent has led him to conquer the capital of blues (Chicago, Illinois), accompanied by Adela, a four-string slide guitar known as a ‘sweet potato can’. Despite his youth, he has already shared the stage with musicians of the stature of Buddy Guy and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram and has performed in
various countries in America, Asia and Europe. Rolling Stone magazine has described him as ‘the artist who keeps the blues alive with a fresh and personal style’.
BILBAO ALL STAR BLUES BAND – SATURDAY 25 JULY AT 8.45 PM (KELER STAGE) AND SUNDAY 26 JULY AT 2 PM (VOLOTEA-KIOSKO DEL ARENAL AREA)
Designed for the Bilbao Blues Festival, this stellar band is made up of true heavyweights of American blues. It features Willie Buck (vocals), Bob Stroger (bass), Teeny Tucker (vocals), Jimi Primetime Smith (guitar), Anthony Geraci (piano), Wes Starr (drums) and Bob Corritore (harmonica). This great group of instrumentalists and vocalists display an incomparable natural chemistry between them and a stylistic purity that takes the blues to an extraordinary level. Among its members is 95-year-old Bob Stroger, winner of the Bilbao Blues Festival award at its first edition in 2022.
TRAVELLIN’ BROTHERS – SATURDAY 25 JULY AT 10.30 PM (KELER STAGE)
Travellin’ Brothers, with more than 1,300 concerts and 11 albums under their belt, have played in clubs and venues across Europe, and on their tours of the US they have taken their music to legendary venues such as the BMC and the Bluenile on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, the BB King Club, 152 Club and New Daisy Theatre on the legendary Beale Street in Memphis, the great Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, and Reds Juke Joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi. They have also played in clubs and venues in Texas such as the Continental Club in Houston, the Red Brick Tavern in Conroe, and the Green Oaks Tavern in Humble.
SKYLER SAUFLEY – SUNDAY 26 JULY AT 12:30 PM (VOLOTEA SPACE – ARENAL KIOSK)
A self-taught multi-instrumentalist and recent inductee into the Alabama Blues Hall of Fame, Skyler Saufley (1995, Virginia) is not your typical blues artist, and his career can be considered unique. Specialising in jump, swing and West Coast-style blues, Saufley boasts impeccable stage presence and an astonishing ability to infect his shows with energy. His live concerts are imbued with a mix of electrifying blues and boogie-woogie. Saufley’s talent evokes the spirit of blues legends T-Bone Walker and Pee Wee Crayton.
TALK ON FEMINIST PIONEERS AT THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO – SATURDAY, 25 JULY AT 11:00 AM
Given by Héctor Martínez, this lecture, which is part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s TopArte programme, aims to ‘raise awareness of the leading role women played in the fight against slavery as drivers of abolitionist movements, but also as participants in the Underground Railroad’. This term refers to the clandestine network of secret routes and safe houses that was active in the United States during the 19th century. Mayka Edjole (vocals) and Alex Caporuscio (guitar) will participate.
BOOGIE WOOGIE CLASSES AT THE KIOSK – SUNDAY, 26 JULY AT THE VOLOTEA SPACE (KIOSK DEL ARENAL)
As usual, the morning of the last day of the Bilbao Blues Festival is reserved for popular Boogie Woogie dance classes, now a classic feature of this event. Taught by Carlos Etxebarria from the Portugalete Swing Dance School, they begin at 11:30 a.m. and are open to the general public.
AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED ORGANISATION
The festival’s promoter, Crazy Blues, has been honoured with the highest international awards for promoting this musical genre: The BBSA Award for Best Promoter (Blues Behind the Scenes Award), awarded by the European Blues Union in the Azores in 2019, and the K.B.A. Award for Best International Festival Organisation (Keeping the Blues Alive) in 2015, the highest global recognition, awarded by the Blues Foundation in Memphis.
Now in its fifth year, the Bilbao Blues Festival continues to establish itself as a landmark event on the European blues circuit, combining tradition, international exposure and free access to culture in the heart of the city.