BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Los Angeles. Florida’s Ocala National Forest. Boise.
These are the only U.S. locations to make National Geographic’s Best of the World 2025 list.
The list, compiled by the magazine’s writers, photographers and editors, features 25 locations from around the world selected for the unique experiences that will be available to visitors and locals alike in the upcoming year. What, then, is the reason for Boise making the limited list of premier travel destinations? The ability to “party with the Basques,” the magazine said, in reference to the return of Jaialdi — a once-every-five-years festival celebrating Basque heritage.
Basque for “big festival,” Jaialdi is the largest of its kind in the United States, and among the largest Basque festivals in the world. The festival is set to make its return, from July 29-Aug. 3, after a 10-year hiatus instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Basque people are an ethnic group that hails from the Basque Country, located between France and Spain. Today, Boise has one of the largest concentrations of the Basque community in the United States, with about 16,000 living in Boise today.
“Boise has more Basques per capita than anywhere outside of Spain, so having Jaialdi return for the first time in 10 years is a major highlight of 2025,” Carrie Westergard, Executive Director of Visit Boise, said. “Not only for our residents with Basque heritage, but as an opportunity for Boise to celebrate the rich cultural legacy that has influenced the city and state since the 1860s.”
The festival has an international pull, drawing in members from the Basque regions in Spain and France, with the wider diaspora hailing from as far away as Australia. For the Basque people, Jaialdi offers a unique opportunity to celebrate the enduring culture and traditions of the region, Lael Uberuaga-Rodgers, Jaialdi’s marketing and media chair, said in an emailed response.
“For many, it’s a reason to make the long journey every five years to be together, bridging that ocean to celebrate with loved ones here in Boise,” Uberuaga-Rodgers said.
ORIGIN OF THE FESTIVAL
The first festival was held at Idaho’s historical State Penitentiary in 1987, a celebration of the unique presence of the Basque culture in Boise that was intended to be a one-off event. Seeing the success of the festival, then-Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus requested another Jaialdi be held in 1990 for Idaho’s centennial celebration.
After the second festival, organizers decided to host the event every five years, on the last of weekend of July — a date that aligns with the Basque celebration of Saint Ignatius de Loyola, or San Inazio, a Basque soldier-turned-priest and theologian, who was born in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa during the 15th century.
Though Jaialdi is a secular festival, Saint Ignatius is commemorated with a Jaialdi Mass, notable for the unique, celebratory dancing that comes alongside the service.
“A particularly special feature of the mass celebrating Saint Ignatius Jaialdi is the Oñati Korpus — Corpus Christi — dances,” Uberuaga-Rodgers said. “Boise is the only place in the world, outside of the small medieval town of Oñati in the Basque Country, where these specific liturgical dances are performed.”
Dancers adorned with traditional attire perform these dances outside the church and on the altar during Mass. The dances, known for their intricate steps and unique jumping, embody the “rhythmic, artistic, athletic and spiritual essence of Basque culture,” Uberuaga-Rodgers said.
In past festivals, Jaialdi has drawn between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors from around the world and has centered around Boise’s Basque Block, located on Grove Street between Sixth Street and Capitol Boulevard. The block features historic boarding houses, the Basque Museum and Cultural Center as well as Basque eateries Bar Gernika and Leku Ona.
Prior to the pandemic, the festival had been held without cancellation or postponement since 1990. Plans to host the event for 2020 had to be cancelled, with organizers citing ongoing safety concerns as people around the world were expected to assemble. With these extenuating circumstance mitigated, the festival will pick up where it left off in 2025, restoring its every-five-year tradition and bringing in guests from around the world to once again enjoy the six-day festival.
“After having to cancel in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, there is now ten years’ worth of pent-up Basque energy ready to fill Boise, and you can already feel the buzz of anticipation as planning ramps up,” Uberuaga-Rodgers said.
FESTIVAL LINE-UP
Though the Basque Block will continue to be the center of the festival, Expo Idaho and Idaho Central Arena will be among the venues hosting a week full of traditional Basque events, in addition to the aforementioned Mass. Professional Basque athletes are set to participate in traditional farm sport competitions including wagon lifting, wood chopping and hay bale throwing. Music with Basque and Basque American bands and performing groups from the Basque Country will also be central to the festival’s entertainment.
A full run-down of next year’s schedule is available now on the Jaialdi Festival website, with tickets expected to go on sale in January of next year.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
