2,000+ for busiest-ever BIME Pro

More than 2,000 delegates attended the fifth BIME Pro last month, in the biggest year yet for the Bilbao music business conference.

BIME Pro 2017 took place from 25 to 27 October at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC), bringing together musicians, managers, entrepreneurs and other representatives of the Spanish, European and Latin American music industries for three days of meetings (more than 680), panels, showcases, the BIME Startup Summit and the Festival Congress.

Panel-wise, the music industry’s gender gap was one of the most hotly debated topics, while Primavera Sound director Gabi Ruiz predicted the disappearance of music festivals as we know them due to large multinational promoters; 200 Spanish festivals, meanwhile, attended the Festival Congress, many of them later receiving awards in the Premios Fest ceremony.

BIME Pro 2017 also marked the debut of BIME Campus, a one-week academy attended by 32 students selected from more than 1,500 applications.

Finally, showcase festival strand BIME City saw 41 bands from 11 countries, including Dutch acts DeWolff and Max Meser,Spanish band the Limboos, Columbian act Mitu and French artists Fakear and Agar Agar, play to a combined audience of 5,500.

BIME Pro will return in 2018.

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