Upcoming events
San Juan Eguna
When the sun goes down on San Juan Eguna, the feast day of St. John the Baptist, many a bonfire is set ablaze in the Basque Country to mark the celebration.
Txoko Ona has brought this unique celebration to Homedale.
Join us for the San Juan Eguna Basque Festival at Txoko Ona on Saturday, June 21, 2025.
61st Annual National Basque Festival in Elko, NV
Get ready to eat, drink, and be Basque with us. The 61st Annual National Basque Festival is just around the corner — July 5th & 6th — and we can’t wait to celebrate with YOU!
79th Annual Basque Picnic in Southern California
Join us Sunday July 6th at the Chino Fairgrounds!
This year’s festivities will feature a gateau basque competition, Irrintzi contest, raffle, vendors, balloons, ice cream, and more!
Running of the Bars
Join us on the Basque Block (and bring your friends!) for Boise’s best Basque pub crawl! In the name of San Fermin, wear your whites with red belts (gerrikos) and scarves (pañuelos) and get ready to run…from bar to bar. There will be friendly competitions, music, prizes, and plenty of drinks flowing.
What is Running of the Bars?
ROTB is a pub crawl in downtown Boise that starts on the Basque Block, includes bars like the Basque Center, Leku Ona, Tom Grainey’s, Cactus, Whiskey Bar, & Silly Birch. Participants can take part in a special activity at each bar (shearing sheep, roping a bull, carrying weights, trivia, etc.), have a beverage or two with your friends, and then join us back on the Basque Block for dancing, food and more drinks! OH! AND it’s a fundraiser for the Basque Museum & its educational programs!
How do I Sign Up?
There are two ways!
If you would like to go all-out and really get into the fun, we are partnering with Bonfire to help! Click the Bonfire link below and pick a shirt. Once you checkout, your event ticket(not an actual ticket, your name will be on the check-in list), cup, drink and food (chorizo or tortilla) is included. If you sign up by June 23, your shirt will be delivered to you before the event. You can still sign up and get a shirt until July 12, you just may not get the shirt on time.
If you want to participate but don’t want to get a shirt (it’s a cool shirt, but sometimes we get it – one more shirt is too many), you can click the Museum link below and purchase your Running of the Bars ticket (still not a physical ticket, but your name will be on the check-in list). Your purchase includes the event, cup, drink, and food (just no shirt).
Tentative Schedule
5pm – Event Start
Check in, get your goodies (your shirt will be shipped to you, but the other goodies will be at check-in), and start heading to the bars!
Other info is still being confirmed like how much our band will be playing music, etc.
9pm – Raffle drawing (for those that participated & finished the pub crawl)
What is the Cost?
The cost via Bonfire is $50 per person and includes a shirt, cup, drink (beer or kalimotxo) & food (chorizo or tortilla); and the cost without the shirt is $25 and includes everything except the shirt.
What do I Get When I Sign Up?
Again, it depends on how you sign up, but everyone will get a cup, drink (kalimotxo or beer), food (chorizo or tortilla) and access to all the event fun like the bar games and drink specials. The only difference is if you want a shirt or not. Up to you. It is a fundraiser for the Museum so we make a little off the shirt sign ups as well as the non-shirt sign ups.
You can also purchase a Running of the Bars neck scarf (pañuelo) and other items at the event, if you want.
57th Annual Reno Basque Festival
Our festival will take place on Saturday, July 19th starting at 10a.m. It will be a day filled with performances from our dancers, weightlifters & woodchoppers, food, wine, contests & a social dance that evening. Everyone is welcome & admittance is free!
Live in Concert: Annekdotas
Reggae and punk rock singer Annekdotas sings in Basque and Spanish
Jaialdi
Jaialdi was originally supposed to be a one-time-only event.
But successes have a way of building upon themselves, and Jaialdi 2025 marks our eighth International Basque Festival.
The first Jaialdi was celebrated in 1987 at the historic Idaho State Penitentiary and was intended to celebrate the old and new, local and international aspects of Basque culture. More than 30,000 enthusiastic participants arrived and were treated to a parade, symposium, Mass, street dance, sports exhibitions, cultural performances, souvenir booths and food and drink.
In 1990, Idaho’s then-governor, Cecil Andrus, requested that another Jaialdi be held as part of the 100th anniversary of Idaho’s statehood. Jaialdi ’90 took the same format, but with a few minor changes and improvements. It proved so popular, again, that organizers decided that Jaialdi would be a recurring festival that would happen every five years. Jaialdi is always held during the last weekend of July, which coincides with the Boise Basque community’s celebration of San Ignatius de Loyola, the patron saint of the Basque people.
Jaialdi 2020 was slated to be the seventh Jaialdi, but the Covid-19 pandemic had other plans. After postponing to 2021, then to 2022, organizers decided the safest and surest thing would be to return to the original five-year format. Because of the pandemic, Jaialdi 2025 will be our first Jaialdi since 2015 – 10 years ago!
With upwards of 30,000 attendees at the last festival, Jaialdi is the largest Basque festival in the United States by far, and is larger than most Basque festivals in the world. Many Basques living in the Basque Country even make the trip to experience their own culture through the lens of the Basque-American diaspora.
Like most things Basque, the festival is planned and staffed by an amazing cast of volunteers, who work for years in between each festival to plan a fabulous celebration for our local community and visitors from afar.
International Symposium on the Basque Diaspora
Hosted in Boise, Idaho, USA by the Basque Studies Foundation, in partnership with the Basque Educational Organization and Basque Studies at Boise State University.
Innovative presentations, panels, and exhibits about the dynamic nature of Basque Cultural expressions in the Diaspora.
Basque Museum Winefest Fundraiser
Join us on the Basque Block as we share more than 100 wines, raffle prizes, music, and dancing while raising funds for the Basque Museum!
August 23 5:30-8:30pm
More information to come.
Tickets on sale May 1.
63rd Annual San Fransisco Picnic
The 63rd Annual San Francisco Basque Picnic is on Sunday, June 8th, 2025 in Penngrove Park.
Euskaraldia!
Euskaraldia is a social movement to activate the use of the Basque language.
