Bite Basque Beat: Zetak, Gatibu and Olatz Salvador

Zetak, Gatibu and Olatz Salvador will be at the new Basque music festival, Bite Basque Beat, held on September 1st and 2nd in the Tampere, Finland. The aim of the event, organised in collaboration with the Etxepare Basque Institute and held within the framework of Tamperrada (a food festival created in 2013), “is to popularise Basque culture and gastronomy in Finland, with the idea of establishing a project for the exchange of our cultures and people,” said Juanan Bilbao, head of the Basking Food & Culture project and promoter of the initiative, alongside food editor and Basque culture enthusiast Mikka Reinikka, co-founder of the new festival.

Etxepare Basque Institute Director for the Promotion and Dissemination of Euskara, Imanol Otaegi, feels that Bite Basque Beat is an initiative of great interested. "The international prestige of Basque gastronomy has been a gateway to contemporary Basque music in Finland," he said, coinciding with one of the main lines of work of Etxepare: to promote the international presence of Basque artists and creators. "That is precisely why we are promoting this festival, so that Zeta, Gatibu and Olatz Salvador can make their music known in Finland, as well as to reinforce the collaboration networks with Finnish cultural stakeholders,” he added.

Bite Basque Beat will kick off on September 1st, when the three bands will play one-hour acoustic informal concerts at different venues in Tampere, a city of almost 400,000 inhabitants 170 kilometres north of Helsinki. The following day, the three groups will perform on the same stage, one after the other, in Tampere’s well-known G Livelab hall. According to the organisers, “tickets are selling quickly and a full house is assured,” adding that “strict Finnish Covid-19 safety measures are in place”. 

Zetak is Pello Reparaz´s Basque electronic music project. Since the group’s creation two years ago it has already won several awards (including the Etxepare Award for ´Best Album in Basque´ at the MIN Awards 2021, and Gaztea Saria 2020), as well as accumulating millions of streams on various platforms in a short time.

Founded in 2000, Gatibu is one of the most popular bands in Euskal Herria. Playing a melodic and lively rock, the group from Bizkaia, led by Alex Sardui, have played hundreds of concerts around the world and have released several successful albums, including their new project, ´Musikak salbatuko gaitu´, released in 2020.

Singer Olatz Salvador began her career in 2010 with the group Skakeitan and released her first solo album, Zintzilik’, in 2018. The artist from San Sebastian has performed on the most important stages in the Basque Country, alongside Xoel López and Christina Rosenvinge, among others. Her latest album, ´Aho uhal´, was released at the beginning of this year.

Proactive Basque-speaking Finns

The Finnish people’s interest in the Basque culture can also be seen in the Basque language and culture assistantship sponsored by the Etxepare Basque Institute at the University of Helsinki. Over 35 students are now learning ‘Baski’ with the Navarra-born language assistant Araitz Claramunt. The student are also very proactive on social networks, where they upload content in Basque. Last June they won third prize at HIGA, the Meeting of Young Speakers of Minority Languages in Vitoria-Gasteiz, with the video ‘Erabili euskara, kontxo!’