Coordinates: 43°17′22″N 2°59′23″W

Bilbao Exhibition Centre

The Bilbao Exhibition Centre (commonly abbreviated as
BEC) is an exhibition centre in Barakaldo, Basque Country, Bilbao Exhibition Centre
Spain. The current headquarters of the Feria de Muestras de BEC
Bilbao, its facilities are located on land formerly occupied by
the Basque iron company Altos Hornos de Vizcaya in the
neighbourhood of Ansio in Barakaldo, in the Greater Bilbao
area. These facilities, opened in April 2004, allow for high
capacity international fairs with better services, infrastructure,
and connections than the previous facilities in central Bilbao.[1]

The Bilbao Exhibition Centre is jointly owned by the Basque

Government, the Provincial Council of Biscay, Bilbao
Municipal Council, Barakaldo Municipal Council and the
Bilbao Chamber of Commerce.

Contents
Overview
BEC entrance.
BEC Tower
Bizkaia Arena
Fairs, contests and celebrations
Connections
References
External links

Overview
Location Barakaldo, Basque
Country, Spain
Coordinates 43°17′22″N 2°59′23″W
Public transit Metro Bilbao:
Aerial view of the BEC complex. Line 2 at Ansio
Construction
The Bilbao Exhibition Centre covers an area of 251,055 square Opened April 2004
metres (2,702,330 sq ft), of which 246,457 square metres
Architect ACXT
(2,652,840 sq ft) are distributed in six pavilions without any
columns intended for exhibitions, while the rest houses a Project Celos Fonseca
shopping mall and a hotel. In addition to the exhibition halls, manager Javier Vergar
the complex has a VIP hall, a conference centre, 6,500 square
Jon Ochoca
Javier Ruiz de Prada
feet (600 m2 ) dedicated to office space, and a large atrium. It Structural Fernando del Campo
also has an underground car park with capacity for 4,000 engineer
vehicles.[2] Website
On the roof, a photovoltaic solar energy park has been bilbaoexhibitioncentre.com (http://bilbaoex
installed, and it has become one of the largest the Basque hibitioncentre.com/)
Country. The park has 628 solar photovoltaic panels and
achieves an output of 100 kW in an area of 1,000 square metres (11,000 sq ft).

BEC Tower
The BEC Tower, at 92.83 metres (304.6 ft) high, was the tallest building the Basque Country when it opened,
which was higher than the BBVA Tower in central Bilbao, at 88 metres (289 ft) in height. In 2009, the title of
tallest building went to the Iberdrola Tower, which was finished in 2011 and has a height of 165 metres.

A restaurant and the offices of the BEC company are located in the tower.

Bizkaia Arena
Bizkaia Arena is the largest multi-purpose hall in Spain, since it can
accommodate up to 26,000 people, and 18,640 for most indoor sports. It
forms part of Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC) complex.

The venue regularly hosts basketball matches. Between 2009 and 2010,
it was the home arena of Bilbao Basket; in 2007 and 2008, it was also
used several times for its most popular matches. The arena was the venue
of the final stage of the 2010 Copa del Rey de Baloncesto, and was one
of the sites of 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, hosted by Spain. Entrance to the Bizkaia Arena at
night (2017)
The arena hosted the annual MTV Europe Music Awards in 2018 as the
awards show was held in Spain for the third time and the first time in
Bilbao.[3]

Fairs, contests and celebrations

Several national and international fairs are regularly held in the BEC facilities, including Ferroforma, the
Biennial Machine-Tool Fair (BIEMH), and the Euskal Encounter. In the Bizkaia Arena, basketball games,
plays, motocross races, and music concerts are held. The main political parties in the region hold campaign
events and sometimes their congresses there. Similarly, several labour unions and business organisations hold a
variety of meetings and conventions. The Jehovah's Witnesses have held their May and December meetings
there for several years.

Connections
Alongside the construction of the BEC, the Ansio station on Line 2 of Metro Bilbao was built. The station
deals with heavy passenger traffic when there is some event at the BEC, so Metro Bilbao offers special
services for such events, such as delaying the closing time and stepping up frequencies. Also, opposite the
main entrance of the BEC, there are two Bizkaibus stops: one for the 3142 line (connection with the
underground), and line 3136; also close to that entry there is an occasional shuttle service, as well as a bus
terminal, which is not in use at this time. Around the centre are other Bizkaibus stops.
References
1. "Abre sus puertas el Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC), que
sustituye a la Feria Internacional de Muestras de la capital
vizcaína" (https://www.hosteltur.com/20606_abre-sus-puertas-
bilbao-exhibition-centre-bec-sustituye-feria-internacional-mue
stras-capital-vizcaina.html). hosteltur.com (in Spanish). 20
April 2004. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
2. "BEC BILBAO EXHIBITION CENTRE" (http://www.bilbaointer Metro Bilbao's Ansio station on
national.com/en/bec-bilbao-exhibition-centre/). the left, next to BEC Tower.
bilbaointernational.com. 16 December 2010. Retrieved
26 November 2017.
3. "Los premios MTV viajarán a Bilbao" (https://elpais.com/cultura/2017/11/12/actualidad/151048
3592_899546.html) (in Spanish). El País. November 12, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2017.

External links
Media related to Bilbao Exhibition Centre at Wikimedia Commons

Official website (http://bilbaoexhibitioncentre.com/)

Virtual Tour (Official website) (http://bilbaoexhibitioncentre.com/wp-content/visita-virtual-bec/ind
ex.html?lang=en&panorama=38)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bilbao_Exhibition_Centre&oldid=976673550"

This page was last edited on 4 September 2020, at 09:21 (UTC).

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