Nick Spanos. The town was painted red, white and green as thousands flocked to Buffalo for the North American Basque Organizations’ National Basque Festival. The barrage of Basque culture was inescapable. Red and black berets could be seen speckling Washington Park, and the unmistakable timbre of accordions seemed ubiquitous.
Over the weekend there were 7,029 wristbands sold, setting the record for attendance of any NABO festival hosted in Buffalo. The last time the festival came to Buffalo was 2011, and that year it drew approximately 5,200 people.
This year’s festival was the result of months of planning and preparation by the local Big Horn Basque Club, city employees and community members. When NABO arrived, everything went off without a hitch, which was a group effort, according to Big Horn Basque Club president Jason Camino.
“I’d just like to emphasize that it was a full town event. A lot of the credit needs to go to the community, the business owners, the vendors, the city and everybody else that made it possible,” he said.
Many organizers echoed Camino’s sentiments about community involvement, including festival musician and organizer David Romtvedt.
“The community of Buffalo deserves a lot of praise for being so involved in the event. In many bigger communities where they have NABO, the city itself isn’t as involved,” he said. “The town, in my estimation, was completely welcoming of this big Basque event, and I’m very thankful for that.”
NABO began on Thursday with registration and a hospitality hour hosted by the Michelena family, and later that evening there was live Basque music at the Occidental Saloon.
On Friday the celebration ramped up with events from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. One highlight from Friday afternoon was the sheep wagon stove auction. Twenty-five local artists each painted a replica stove, which were subsequently auctioned off with all proceeds going to the Bread of Life Food Pantry. The total for all the auctioned stoves was $31,000, which was matched in full by the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming for a grand total of $62,000.
As per usual, music and dancing were prevalent during the festival. Performers from all over North America and beyond kept patrons engaged throughout the weekend.
“At many NABO festivals they have one big stage, but we tried to make it more interactive. We had two live performance areas running at once, which allowed people and musicians, who wouldn’t otherwise know each other, to meet,” Romtvedt said.
The larger performance area was held under a pole tent in the hockey rink, and the acoustic performance area was across North DeSmet Avenue in Washington Park.
Over the weekend there was no shortage of activity downtown. Patrons filed in and out of businesses along Main Street all weekend long, and although there was revelry, there were no serious incidents.
NABO organizers and city officials worked together to make sure every facet of the festival was problem free.
“I think the city’s involvement was on multiple fronts: the city council granting permission on street closures and open containers, the city crews who set up and took down the barricades and the police department who managed the parade and street dance,” Mayor Mike Johnson said. “It was all of those interfaces that made it go smoothly from an organizational standpoint.”
The NABO festival will return to Buffalo in 2021.
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