The OCU, Consumer and User Organization, has denounced the organizing company of the BBK Live Music Festival, Last Tour, for non-compliance with the consumer rights of visitors. The entity has specified in a press release the irregularities committed by the organising company in this edition of the festival.La OCU has recalled that it is carrying out a campaign to “remind users of their rights, demand compliance by the organizers and request further controls and sanctions from the administrations”. This year’s edition has revealed three problems that the OAU has identified in this campaign: the ban on entering with food and drinks from abroad, the inability to pay cash and the lack of money back in the event of programme changes.

Last Tour, for its part, once again repeated this year the ban on food and drinks abroad. The OCU has pointed out that this is an "absolutely disproportionate ban" and that the prices of consumption within the festival are "excessive". This problem was repeated in the complaint made last year by the consumer association Facua, which denounced the hechos.Facua considers that “the main activity is not hospitality, but the development of a musical show”.

In the complaints filed by the OCU and Facua in the last two years the cashless formula is repeated, that payments within the festival are made through a bracelet and the inability to pay in cash or by bank card. The OCU considers that the formula is "illegal" and denounces that in order to recover the unspent money the users must pay a commission and that if it is not done within a period of fifteen days, the money not spent will be for the company.

The last point of the OCU’s complaint was the non-return of tickets if the festival’s programming changes for climatic reasons. These reasons, according to the organization, are “partially foreseeable” and indicate that the organising company should take appropriate steps to “mitigate negative effects and damage”.

The complaining company has requested that the “illegality” of these three practices be assessed and that the sanctions laid down in the legislation be “imposed” so that they are not repeated in future editions. The OCU has specified that in the event that justice justifies it, the festival should return the amounts that have been considered "excessive".

Consumer price infringements and cash rejection

Facua, in his complaint of the previous year, referred to article 51 of Law 10/2015 of December 23, on Public Shows and Recreational Activities, in which they are considered “very serious infringements”, such as “the arbitrary or abusive exercise of the right of admission”. Also mentioned was Article 47 of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users, which considers “infringement” the “denial of cash payment as a means of payment within the limits imposed by tax regulations and the prevention and fight against tax fraud”.

Working conditions, one more year in focus

The Self-Defense Network at Work (LAS) has been concentrated in front of EITB’s headquarters in San Mamés on July 11, the day the festival began. In it, they rejected the festival and denounced the "miserable" working conditions of wage workers. LAS members have stressed that the festival’s workers, organized by Last Tour, “have days of more than twelve hours, lack of rest and changes in schedules.”

The protesters highlighted that “the City Council of Bilbao, together with the other institutions, has financed the festival with more than 1.5 million euros”. LAS members have also highlighted the point of view of the company Last Tour, founded in 1990. "In exchange for the new Bilbao city model and the promotion of the image of the Bilbao City Hall, Last Tour has been receiving large subsidies for years," they said. Professional politicians and business organisations are "instruments for increasing and guaranteeing the profits of entrepreneurs", they stressed.

It is not the first time that the working conditions of the Bilbao BBK Live, which began this year 2011, have been denounced. In 2019, the union LAB and Eragin – Bilboko Gazte Presekatuak Asanblada – reported on the working conditions of the Music Festival staff. LAB specified that the festival workers held in Kobetamendi received “salaries equal to or less than 4 euros”, “for days over 12 hours”. Eragin Bilbao stated that they were charged “3.5 euros per hour”, for days that lasted “up to 15 hours”.