Photo Courtesy: Jon C. Hodgson
Celebrating Culture
Visit heritage festivals and connect to communities
Spectators line both sides of a downtown Boise street, rhythmically tapping their feet as dancers dressed in traditional attire bounce and spin in lines and circles to the sounds of a three-holed txistu flute, accordions and tambourines.
This is Jaialdi—the word for festival in the Basque language—a week of festivities held every five years in July to celebrate a key part of the diverse culture of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Dancing is a staple. The “Basque Block” along West Grove Street is comfortably crowded as everyone watches choreographed groups take their turns. Men wave bowed wicker sticks while small bells jingle with accompaniment to the music. A line forms nearby as revelers line up to try the paella—a blend of saffron-and paprika-infused rice, vegetables, shrimp, mussels, clams and Basque chorizo—cooked outdoors in a 5-foot-wide pan.
Music, dance and food are threads that bind cultural expression during heritage jubilees. The events are important ways to bring communities together, celebrate heritage and educate visitors about people and places across the world.
Photo Courtesy: Jon C. Hodgson
Community Education
The Oregon Asian Festival, taking place July 19 in Eugene, Oregon, celebrates the Year of the Snake in 2025. It’s a time for transformation, wisdom and understanding.
More than 5,000 people attend this one-day event each year, and members of the Asian-American community gather to reconnect while others attend “to learn what it means to be part of a culture,” said David Tam, executive director of the festival.
“For us, it’s about community and culture, how we transform, adapt and grow in changing times,” Tam said.
At the Shoshone Bannock Indian Festival, to be held August 7–10, 2025, people attend or participate in the four-day celebration featuring rodeo events, competitions, tournaments and exhibitions.
At the center of it all are the dances, songs and drums. “A lot of our dances, our songs and our food are connections to our Mother Earth, our creator,” said Dustina Abrahamson, an event spokesperson.
Along with watching the events, visitors are welcome to try traditional foods that have evolved over centuries and include buffalo, mutton and frybread.
Photo Courtesy: Jon C. Hodgson
Learning Through Play and People
An introduction to different peoples and places is discovered through fun and games.
At the Shoshone Bannock Indian Festival, those may include traditional Indian Relay Races in which horses run on a track while teams of riders serve as human batons, leaping off and on with each lap.
At Boise’s Jaialdi, held from July 29-August 3, 2025, athletes play pelota, a sport similar to handball. Matches take place on an original fronton court in the Anduiza Building, a former boarding house built in 1912 and serving as the entryway to the Basque Block.
“Jaialdi is the biggest and most visible representation of Basque culture in the region, and it is a uniquely Boise event,” said Carrie Westergard, executive director of the city’s Visit Boise tourism office. “It’s something that everyone in the community can celebrate and be proud of, whether Basque
or non Basque, because everyone is welcome.”
Since Jaialdi takes place once every five years, more than 30,000 people come to town when it does. There’s added anticipation this year after the pandemic forced cancellation of the 2020 event.
The region’s 16,000 Basque descendants remain proud of their ancestors, who immigrated from seven provinces in northern Spain and southern France—the Basque Country—to the United States in the mid-1800s. Boise developed an enclave in the late 1880s, making West Grove Street a hub for all things Basque for more than 130 years.
Photo Courtesy: Sarah B. Anderson
Links Across the World
There’s often no need to venture across the globe when regional travel teaches visitors about cultures of the world.
The Wallowa Mountains are often called the “Alps of Oregon,” so it’s fitting that Oregon’s Alpenfest takes place here each year—this year, September 24-28. A street fair in downtown Joseph includes live music, German food, beer and games for children. Concerts each evening in the communities of Lostine, Enterprise and Joseph feature traditional music and yodeling, Tyrolean dancers and polka.
Lederhosen and dirndl dresses are in fashion during the festival. “There’s more Swiss influence here than a
purely German Octoberfest,” said event spokesperson Stefan Hasselblad. “There’s traditional music and dancing. It’s Swiss and German with a side of local beer and a
lot of food.”
One highlight is a ride on the Wallowa Lake Tramway to the top of Mt. Howard for a concert featuring traditional alphorns.
Photo Courtesy: Jon C. Hodgson
Districts Come to Life
Larger cities boast of cultural districts where immigrants of various descents settled, restaurants opened and the country-of-origin’s culture was rekindled in a new land.
Portland’s Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood takes on the unofficial “Little Italy” role when the annual Festa Italiana Portland sets up at St. Phillip Neri Church on September 21, 2025. Under the banner “Festa Italia is Coming Home,” Italian-Americans will celebrate outside the church that has served Portland’s Italian community since 1913. And no “festa” is complete without traditional and contemporary Italian music, pizza, cannoli, wines, olive tastings and perhaps a cup of gelato. All are welcome at these celebrations of place and culture.
Dan Shryock is a career journalist and Salem-based travel writer whose work has appeared in magazines and digital mediums. His latest book, “Cycling Across Oregon: Stories, Surprises & Revelations Along the State’s Scenic Bikeways,” was released in 2024.
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