Perhaps, in the imagination of the uninitiated, the barge be a vessel on which the Athletic has celebrated all its titles since time immemorial. But no, this kind of urban legend could not be further from reality, because until this Thursday, the most famous barge in world football had only sailed the Nervión estuary on two occasions, in 1983 to celebrate the League and a year later to do so with the League and Cup double. But those memories were so memorable that…
The traditional method of celebrating Athletic titlesin fact, It was a bus tour through different towns in Vizcayaoften taking advantage of the team’s return trip from wherever the final was held, generally Madrid, home of the majority of Cup finals during the famous years of the Bilbao team, before winning stopped being a custom.
Now, winning is an exception for Athletic, a historical fact. In the last 40 years, only the 2015 and 2021 Super Cups had satisfied the red and white appetite. And little, to tell the truth, like someone who puts a couple of peanuts in his mouth when famine has already pierced his stomach. Time, the four decades that have passed until victory against Mallorca in the Cup final last Saturday, they were turning the barge into an obsession rather than a desire. And, with the eternal fast finally over, Bilbao is preparing the biggest party in its history for this Thursday.
It talks about one million peopleMaybe it’s a few less, it’s probably many more. It will be impossible to measure the exact volume of Athletic fans that will crowd on both banks of the Nervión, during the 12 kilometer journey of the towable barge, restored a few years ago for an occasion that finally arrived. Bilbao is guaranteed to collapse throughout the day, although the celebration is not going to start until 4:30 p.m. The barge, with the 160 boats that accompany it, will depart from the Real Club Marítimo del Abra, in Getxo, and will go up the entire estuary until it reaches Bilbao City Hall, a priori around 6:40 p.m.
The barge route
16:30: Royal Maritime Club of Abra. Boarding the barge.
16:50: Las Arenas/Portugalete.
17:10: Lamia/Altos Hornos.
17:30: Erandio/Sestao
17:45: Lutxana/Punta Zorroza.
18:00: Ribera de Zorrozaurre/Zorroza.
18:15: Deusto/Maritime Museum.
18:30: Campo Volantín/Uribitarte.
18:35: Stairs of Bilbao City Hall. Disembarkation of the barge.
18:40: Bilbao City Council.
19:40: Open bus trip from the Town Hall to the Provincial Council passing through El Arenal, Plaza Circular and Gran Vía.
20:00: Provincial Council of Bizkaia.
Then the institutional receptions will arrive at the City Hall and the Provincial Council. Events in which Basque politicians, in the middle of the campaign for the regional elections on Sunday next week, will undoubtedly take the opportunity to try to get some extra votes. The electoral campaign, in practice, is suspended in Vizcaya for these 24 hours. Because there is only one ideology in Bilbao this Thursday and it is red and white.
A symbol of pride
The barge is still a sentimental representation of pride of a team that has decided to continue competing with different rules from the rest. It is already known, Only those who grew up in their quarry can defend the Athletic shirt., the prolific Lezama, or anyone who was born or trained as footballers in Euskadi and the Basque Country. There have been exceptions and some solitaire cheating, but that’s essentially it.
And the barge is, preciselythe symbol that Athletic and Bilbao will use today to shout to the world that their kilometer zero menu can continue to be competitive and successful in the very saturated football offer. Although it takes, as has been the case, 40 years to prove it. Four decades in which, everything must be said, all clubs have been in the Second Division for at least one year except Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Athletic.
It will be the culmination, in the absence of the trophy parade in San Mamés, this Sunday before the league match against Villarreal, almost a week of constant celebrations in the capital of Biscay. Days that had as their milestone the street party that the squad improvised through the streets of Bilbao on Tuesday night, to which hundreds of anonymous fans ended up joining.
“Unique in the world” is Athletic’s most recent motto, “unique in the world.” And that party with Asier Villalibre’s brass band reinforces their arguments to think about it, even though the Ertaintza has decided to open a file against four footballers from the red-and-white team for the spontaneous celebration led by Muniain, the red-and-white captain.
Today, no one will open a file against them for standing on the barge and singing from the rooftops that they are champions, while they salute San Mamés, the Guggenheim, the Iberdrola Tower, the Maritime Museum, also the Altos Hornos and the Suspension Bridge. All of Bilbao (and surrounding areas) will be condensed in the tribute to the champions. Never has a huge piece of wood generated so much expectation. Welcome to the biggest party you’ve ever known Bilbao. Athletic pays.
2024-04-11 06:59:39
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