Aste Nagusia is organised not by the city but by the comparsas — around thirty volunteer associations that build their own txosnas, bars and stages along the Arenal, and programme nine days of concerts, Basque rural sports, fireworks competitions and bull running. It was created in 1978 as a deliberately popular, bottom-up festival after the dictatorship.
Its emblem is Marijaia, a large figure of a woman with arms raised, who appears on the first night and is burned on the last.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
It is anchored to the Saturday following 15 August. Everything is free, which is unusual at this scale, and the nightly firework competition over the Nervión is the one fixed point in a programme that otherwise runs all night.
PlanningAnchored to the Saturday after 15 August; the whole nine days are free and programmed by the comparsas.