Port accessOn Sunday, 19 October, the Olatua cruise ship terminal will once again be the venue for the Kai Jai, the Port of Bilbao Open Day, with games, workshops, exhibitions and fun activities for all ages.
The Port Authority facilities in Getxo will be open to the public from 10:30 to 14:30, with free activities designed to ensure a fun day for all. Amongst many other things, visitors will be entertained by Kai and Jai, the intrepid pirate captains who will guide them through the adventures prepared for the occasion.
From 12.00 onwards, visitors will have the opportunity to venture aboard the tugboat Ibaizabal Once and the rescue vessel Sar Gavia, which regularly sail in the waters of the Port of Bilbao. Admission will be by ticket only, which can be collected free of charge at the entrance to the venue from the start of the day until all available places have been taken. A Customs patrol boat, the University of the Basque Country training ship (El Saltillo) and a mooring boat and a pilot boat will also be docked nearby. The Ertzaintza (Basque Police Force) boat Itsas Zain will also be sailing in the area.
Other exciting activities will include a rescue drill involving a helicopter of the Ertzaintza in the waters of the Abra, a demonstration by canine patrol units, and the Clown and Science show, in which two clowns discover, through games and various antics, the science hidden in the ships, cranes and containers of the Port of Bilbao. Creativity will be unleashed in the various workshops to be run, ranging from designing a container like those that arrive and depart daily at the port to creating key rings from waste collected at sea, a roulette wheel with questions about the SDGs and a workshop on how to tie real sailor’s knots.
Activities for all ages will also be available throughout the morning: a playroom, little boats, bouncy castles, trampolines, bungee jumping, jet ski and sailing simulators, glam gela face painting, a photo booth, wooden games, a port trades gymkhana, exhibitions, model boats and much more, including a trip along the river in a trainera (traditional rowing boat), ergometers to count the kilometres covered by those who “row”, a public address system announcing the total distance covered by the participants and its equivalent in trips back and forth along the river, and the game “Bilbao Port, gateway to the sea and the world”, to connect Bilbao with other ports around the world through questions about the countries where those ports are to be found.
To enable easy and sustainable access to the Open Day, a free shuttle bus will run every half hour from the cruise ship terminal to the Neguri metro station and the area around the Bizkaia Bridge. A rest and food area will also be provided.
Organised by the Bilbao Port Authority and the Bilbao River and Port Foundation, this tenth edition of the Kai Jai – Port of Bilbao Open Day is designed to provide visitors with a closer insight into the day-to-day activity of the Port and what the different people who work or collaborate with the Port do to make it a leading logistics hub across Europe.
