BOISE, Idaho — A pair of events have been drawing thousands throughout the weekend and into Sunday to celebrate community, heritage and history.
The Canyon County Fair in Caldwell is an event older than the Gem State itself, dating back around 136 years.
"There's a lot of history there, we've been around for a while," Canyon County Fair Marketing Director, Rebecca Coulter said. "We really do strive to keep our ag heritage alive. We have a really strong agricultural presence in Canyon County."
The fair offers plenty to do, with indoor and outdoor exhibits, traditional fair foods, rides, stage acts – including hypnotists, magicians, jugglers, exotic animals and concerts – and a new way to beat the heat with a 45,000 square-foot expo center.
The fair continues Sunday with the Latino Fair Festival, a day dedicated to Latin culture.
"It's an annual Latino Fair Festival that we have at the Canyon County Fair, where you can come and enjoy folkloric dancing, Aztec dancers and a lot of variety of foods to choose from," Coulter said. "So, that's going to be pretty exciting."
In downtown Boise, there's another cultural celebration happening this weekend.
The last weekend in July, the Basque Block is filled with live music, dancing, sports and good food and drinks. It is all for the San Inazio Basque Festival, an annual street festival celebrated in the Basque Country and right here in Boise.
It's called San Inazio because Saint Ignatius is the Patron Saint of the Basque people. The festival is around the day of the Saint's Feast Day, which falls on July 31.
Jean Flesher and his band are performing Saturday and Sunday night at the festival, honoring their Basque roots.
"We play the music that our parents taught us when we were growing up," Flesher said. "They came here to be sheep herders or work in Basque restaurants, Basque hotels and different things like that. When they came here, they had their Basque music, but they also had the music that they were listening to here when they came in the 50's and 60's. So, we play a medley of Basque stuff - modern Basque music, old Basque music, and old American music."
2023 San Inazio Basque Festival Sunday schedule:
- 7 p.m. - Fronton Women's Handball Exhibition Doubles
- 7 p.m. - Basque Block Txan Txan Gorriak Basque Musicians
- 7:30 p.m. - Basque Block Bertsolari
- 8 p.m. - Basque Block Sunday Street Dance featuring "Jean Flesher and Band"
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