Duncan Dhu and Kiko Veneno headline a free ALS benefit festival on the Basque waterfront

There is a certain kind of festival that earns its place on the calendar not through its headliner fees or its Instagram footprint, but through the sheer weight of what it stands for. The DalecandELA Fest, now in its fifth year on the Algorta waterfront in Getxo, is that kind of festival — built around the fight against ALS and the simple, radical proposition that a weekend of extraordinary music should be free to anyone who wants to come.

The lineup for this edition is the strongest the festival has assembled. Mikel Erentxun takes the main stage with the catalogue of Duncan Dhu — the San Sebastián new-wave band he co-founded in the 1980s, who are marking their 40th anniversary this year — making this one of the most anticipated performances the Basque coast has hosted in years. Kiko Veneno, who has been navigating the borders between rock and flamenco since the 1970s and has a new record on the way, joins a bill that also includes Sidonie, whose recent work in Catalan has found the Barcelona band at something of a creative peak, and Quique González, the Madrid singer-songwriter who arrives with “1973,” his album with producer Toni Brunet.

The festival unfolds across two stages over four days, with programming that runs from midday to the early hours and reaches well beyond the headline acts. Thursday opens with No Quiero, Mambo Express, Still River and Akatz. Friday brings Brotherhood, Duobite and Caballo Regalado on the second stage alongside main-stage sets from La Sonrisa de Julia, Quique González and Duncan Dhu. Saturday runs all afternoon and night — Neomak, Mäbu and Smile lead into the headline block with Kiko Veneno and Sidonie, while the second stage hosts La Pesca en Sizigia, Vulcanizadas and Cherry Boppers. Sunday closes with Diamond Dogs, the Luke Winslow-King Band, Gonzalo Portugal and Malmö 040. Admission to all of it is free.

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The festival’s organizing association, DalecandELA, channels proceeds from the new BBK-sponsored gastronomy tent toward ALS research — specifically to the BrainLab at BIOBizkaia, one of the institutions working on the disease in the Basque Country. Local food vendors from Algorta and across the region fill the tent, with dedicated stalls directing a portion of their earnings to the association and to scientific research. Beyond the music, the weekend includes children’s workshops, a harbour swimming competition, sustainability sessions, yoga and a demonstration of Irisbond’s eye-tracking communication technology, developed to help people living with ALS.

Five editions in, DalecandELA Fest has built a case for what music can do when the stage is set beside the sea and the gate is left open.

Tags: music-en1, ALS, DalecandELA Fest, Duncan Dhu, Kiko Veneno, Mikel Erentxun

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