The Skakeitan team, after a 14-year career, will say goodbye this year.
The second edition of the Bite Basque Beat festival will take place from August 30 to September 3 in Tampere and Helsinki
The second edition of the Bite Basque Beat Finnaldia Basque music festival will take place from August 30 to September 3, with two main innovations. Firstly, it will be organized in two cities, in Tampere and Helsinki. On the other hand, in addition to the concerts, street dancers and musicians will also attend for the first time this year, offering parades, music and dance courses and pilgrimages. The festival, promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute and the Basking Food & Culture association, has received the support of the Regional Council of Bizkaia and the Music Office to promote the international presence of Basque creators and artists.
In the first edition Gatibu, Zetak and Olatz Salvador took part, and this time the groups Izaro, Skakeitan and Bulego will travel to Finland. Thus, Bite Basque Beat will start on August 30. The same scheme will be followed in Tampere and Helsinki. A two-day program is planned for each city. Courses and pilgrimages will be organized on the first day and concerts on the second. These live shows will be performed on August 31st at the G Live Lab in Tampere and on September 2nd at Heidi’s in Helsinki.
In fact, not only in the city of Tanpere – on August 30 and 31 -, this year Bite Basque Beat will also be organized in Helsinki, on September 1 and 2. And if that wasn’t enough, the Finnish artist Antti Koivula will also give a concert in Helsinki, together with the Basque bands. Antti is a famous Finnish artist who sings Suomi. Basque artists will have the opportunity to talk to him about the importance, reasons and limits of singing a small language, among other things, around the table that will be held before the concerts on the 2nd of the month.
This first Basque music festival in Finland has its roots in the Tamperrada Basque pintxo tournament. It has been held for 13 years, and every year with 62 participating bars and restaurants this festival is organized by Mikka Reinikka, an ardent fan of the Basque language and Basque culture. Seeing that Basque gastronomy attracts a lot in Finland, last year it was decided to take a leap and organize a music festival that would be parallel to the pintxo competition. In this year’s edition, workshops on Basque music and pilgrimages have also been organized for the Basque community in Finland.
Great representatives
Izaro Andres comes from filling the Donostia velodrome. On May 7th, at the Anoeta velodrome, he gave the presentation concert of his new album ‘Limones de oro’ (2022) and he had the singers he has collaborated with. In all, she gathered 6,000 spectators, the largest number of spectators that a female soloist has gathered in the Basque Country. He started singing in bars in 2014, and since then he has published ‘Om’ (2016), ‘Eason’ (2018) and ‘Limones en invierno’ (2020).
The office pop group was born in January 2019 as a multidisciplinary project. The band members are Tomas Lizarazu (vocals and guitar), Xabi Arrieta (drums), Jontxu Ape (bass), Ruben Lizarralde (guitar) and Itziar Beitia (keyboards). They have released three works so far: ‘Bulego’ (2020), ‘Even though it’s dark’ (2020) and ‘Erdian oraina’ (2021). The quintet offers danceable pop full of positive energy. The group has already achieved enormous success, placing in the top charts.
Skakeitan is the group that will say goodbye this year after a 14-year career. Founded in 2008, Pello Armendariz (vocals), Borja Anton (guitar), Asier Iriondo (bass and vocals), Olatz Salvador (keyboards and vocals), Julen Idigoras (drums), Aitor Valcarlos (trombone), Gorka Valcarlos (trumpet) and Ander Zabala (trombone and choirs) are the team members. Among the most recent works placed are ‘Galera’ (2016), ‘Galera beats’ (2017), ‘How to waste time’ (2019) and ‘The concert we didn’t give’ (2021).