In July 2015 Basques from all over the US will gather at Jaialdi in Boise, a large Basque festival that gathers the US Basque community once every five years. Even Basques in the Basque Country have begun making their travel plans, and seats are already filling up. The Overtrails Agency in Pamplona already has more than 200 confirmed passengers on the four trips that it is offering. The first is a trip just to Jaialdi, in Boise, other one also includes a stop in NY. The third will visit Boise, Utah, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, with the fourth along with Basque sheepherders who used to work in the US, will include a very special guide, Julian Iantzi, TV host in the Basque Country, son of one of these herders, and who was born in the US.
Iruña-Pamplona, Navarre. Travel preparations for Basques from Euskal Herria who are planning to attend Jaialdi 2015 have already begun, even though it still almost a year away. Jaialdi is the largest Basque cultural festival held in the US, and maybe in the world. Anyone who has been there doesn’t want to miss the chance to attend the unique cultural experience, and enjoy the Basque culture in the heart of the American West. For those who have never been, or who are not well-acquainted with the Basque Diaspora, discovering this corner of the Basque Country so far from home may be shocking.
That is because Jaialdi is the largest and most popular Basque festival held in the US. It was first held in 1987, when it attracted nearly 30,000 visitors. Since 1990 it is celebrated every five years, on the last weekend of July, coinciding with the local community’s San Inazio celebration, and for a few days, Boise becomes the capital fo the Basque Diaspora. “The Atmosphere is great and it becomes a celebration of Basque culture with music, dancing, concerts, and everyone wanting to have a good time,” Karlos Aguirre from the Navarrese Agency Overtrails explains. “In our case, the trip isn’t the end, but the means to get together with the Basque Diaspora.”
Four Trips
The agency has prepared four packages leaving from the Basque Country:
Ovetrails also organizes trips a la cart for groups and families.
Get together with the Amerikanuak
The last trip will have a very special guide, Julian Iantzi, known for his work on TV programs like “The Conqueror of the End of the World,” on ETB. Iantzi knows the story of the Basque sheepherders up close since his father, Angel Yanci and his uncles Bernardo and Josetxo worked for many years in those far off lands. He was born in the US.
The Iantzi family returned to the Baque Country when he was 7, but his uncle Bernardo, for example, still lives in the US. “I experienced the longing and what it means to miss your family and friends up close…My father decided to return, but many remained,” he says.
Last year, Iantzi participated in the trip organized by the Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan Association, that gathered forty former herders from Navarre and Iparralde who traveled to the US to reunite with friends and family members that some had not seen in 50 years. On this occasion, Overtrails has organized also a trip with a special focus on herders from Bizkaia. A large number of them had worked in the Boise area and in fact the majority of the Basque community in Idaho is of Bizkaian origin.
-For more information:
Overtrails Agency
Phone: (34) 948 293479
E-mail: info@overtrails.com
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