Boise to welcome up to 50,000 for Basque festival

BOISE, Idaho, July 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Every five years, Idaho's state capital becomes the Basque capital of America as up to 50,000 of the unique European ethnic group of that descent descend on Boise for Jaialdi, which means "festival" in the Basques' Euskara language. Seattleite Ray Aspiri, a career entrepreneur-investor and managing director of Aspiri Enterprises, attended the first Jaialdi in 1949 as a 14-year-old. He played a trumpet duet with his cousin, Tony Villanueva, both of them and their families living in Emmett, Idaho, near Boise.

Ray will be one of 250 from the thousands of attendees at the July 29 to August 3 gathering who is invited to join a banquet on August 2 to honor the formal Basque delegation, including Iñigo Urkullu, the president of Basque Country.

Basques are a unique ethnic group indigenous to the seven-province region straddling northern Spain and southwestern France, nestled along the Bay of Biscay and the western Pyrenees Mountains, known as the Basque Country. Basques are considered one of the oldest ethnic groups in Europe, possibly dating back to pre-Indo-European times.

What makes these people with deep roots, fierce pride, and a culture that's both ancient and vibrantly alive especially fascinating is their language, Euskara, which is unrelated to any other known language, a linguistic island in Europe!

The 1949 event came about as the Boise Basque Club staged a landmark cultural performance called "Song of the Basque" during Boise Music Week to seek to draw Basques from Western States to come together to have a festival.

Held at the newly built Basque Center, it was the first formal public showcase of Basque music and dance in the region and marked a proud moment of visibility and celebration for Idaho's Basque population. And it helped solidify Boise's reputation as one of the most vibrant Basque hubs outside Europe.

It was decades later, in 2019, that the descendants of the original performers revived the tradition with "Song of the Basque II," honoring the legacy and cultural pride of that 1949 debut, although the name Jaialdi was coined for either event.

Aspiri, who has launched or grown a dozen companies over half a century as a Seattle-area business leader, first as an entrepreneur then as an investor in entrepreneurs, has arranged for Mike Flynn to write a book about him focused on entrepreneurism and mentoring. He has brought an unusual business philosophy, gained from his Basque roots of avoiding what he refers to as the "perverse incentive" of excessive CEO pay.

Flynn is retired publisher of Puget Sound Business Journal and has written a weekly column called Flynn's Harp, for the past eight years.

But back to Jaialdi. The first event of that name for a Boise gathering was held in 1987 at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, viewed as a one-time event despite its two predecessor events. It was so successful that it returned in 1990 to celebrate Idaho's centennial and has been held every five years since as a six-day celebration of Basque culture through food, music, dance, and sports.

Aspiri has never missed a Jaialdi, the 2020 edition of which was canceled due to Covid 19, making 2025 the first Jaialdi in a decade.

Boise has one of the most concentrated Basque communities in the U.S. with deep roots dating back to the 1800s, when Basques immigrated to Idaho to work in mining and sheepherding.

The city's Basque Block is a cultural hub, home to restaurants, a museum, and a community center.

Asked to explain why the Basque festival has been important to him, Aspiri said, "This gathering has been an important way in which to celebrate our Basque history and culture. Our family genealogy chart documents over 400 names going back to 1746.

"Both sides of my family come from the same area in Northern Spain and preserving this for our current and future generations is most important," he said. Even more important is the lesson this provides in bettering insight into understanding and relating to the rich history and traditions of other ethnic cultures.

"My goal was to have our children and future generations develop a global view of the world and to better relate to people from Poland, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Kenya, Israel, Mexico, and elsewhere," he added.

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SOURCE Aspiri Enterprises