The Ja! Festival 2025 pays tribute to New York and celebrates the centennial of The New Yorker.

From October 9 to 20, 2025, Bilbao will host the 16th edition of the Ja! Festival , one of the most unique events on the Spanish cultural calendar. Literature, humor, art, and performance will come together in a program that, this year, will focus on New York City. The great American metropolis will serve as inspiration in both content and form: from the guests to the most festive events, everything will exude the unmistakable 'New York State of Mind'.

This year, the festival pays tribute to three anniversaries linked to the city of skyscrapers: the centenary of The New Yorker , the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, and the century since the publication of The Great Gatsby , F. Scott Fitzgerald's great satire on the American dream. New York will be, more than a place, a state of mind, an emotional landscape woven by books, films, comics, cartoons, and collective memories.

The Ja! Festival 2025 will bring together a cast of authors who reinforce its international presence. New York novelist Jonathan Lethem , Argentine writer Samanta Schweblin , and graphic artist Peter Kuper are among the highlights of this edition.

Lethem , one of the most imaginative storytellers of our time, arrives with a new novel under his belt (Brooklyn, a crime novel, Random House), and a career that deeply connects him to the city of his birth and to The New Yorker magazine, to which he is a regular contributor. His works, such as "Orphans of Brooklyn" and "The Fortress of Solitude," masterfully blend genres and emotions.

For her part, Berlin-based Samanta Schweblin, acclaimed for her short fiction, adds titles such as "El buen mal" (The Good Evil) (Seix Barral, 2025) to her recent career, consolidating her presence on the international literary scene. Some of her stories have also appeared in The New Yorker, another thread connecting her to the festival's leitmotif.

Artist Peter Kuper , a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The Nation, and Charlie Hebdo , will showcase his sharp, critical eye through his graphic work. With a dozen books published, his latest, Insectopolis (Astiberri, 2025), promises to continue surprising diverse audiences.

As is tradition, the Ja! Festival will combine highbrow offerings with more popular expressions, without sacrificing humor as a common thread. Among the most striking new features in the program is Saturday, October 11, which will include a double session of shows.

On the one hand, the live version of the successful talk show "El sentido de la birra" Live will be presented for the first time in Bilbao, where Ricardo Moya will chat with a surprise guest in an intimate and relaxed format. On the other hand, the event will close with a grand party inspired by the legendary New York club Studio 54 , with Joaquín Reyes as DJ and master of ceremonies. The event will invite the audience to dress up and relive the irreverent glamour of a golden age, with references to icons such as Warhol, Dalí, and Bianca Jagger.

Visual art will have a prominent place in the exhibition " Saul Steinberg , The Wandering Sign," which will be on display throughout October in the Axular Hall of the Bizkaia Aretoa-EHU. Co-produced by the festival and the Juan March Foundation, and with the support of The Saul Steinberg Foundation, the exhibition includes around 100 pieces, including drawings, prints, photographs, and collages, offering a panoramic view of Steinberg's visual universe.

Born in Romania in 1914 and died in New York in 1999, Steinberg defined himself as "a writer who draws." His work in The New Yorker made him a pivotal figure of the 20th century, and his ability to navigate between humor, criticism, and beauty makes him more relevant than ever. Many of the works on display in Bilbao come from a significant donation to the Juan March Foundation, some of which have never before been seen by the public.

The exhibition takes its title from an essay by Alicia Chillida and seeks to highlight the author's errant and transversal essence , whose work crosses genres, languages, and disciplines. Photographs by Leo Lionni and Evelyn Hofer complete this look at a creator who knew how to make us think and laugh in equal measure.

Ja! 2025 will be held in its usual venues—Sala BBK and Bizkaia Aretoa-EHU—and will add new venues such as Sala Bilborock, the Iberdrola Tower, and the Bidebarrieta Library. The full program will be announced in September, but it is already anticipated that it will include activities for young audiences and multidisciplinary proposals.

In addition, the festival is launching the 'Friends of Ja!' community, which will allow fans to register on the official website ( www.jafestival.com ) to access exclusive benefits and stay up-to-date with all the latest news.

With a poster by Javier Jaén, featuring a smiling King Kong against a taxi-yellow background, the Ja! Festival 2025 is a celebration of humor, creativity, and culture, with New York as a universal symbol of imagination, melancholy, and fun.