The Kern County Basque Festival in Bakersfield, Calif. last weekend was a rousing success. The club was celebrating its 50th annual festival, which always takes place on Memorial Day weekend.
On Sunday, the main picnic day, the club served 1.800 barbecue lamb lunches—probably the largest number of lunches ever served, said Kern County Basque Club President Louis Iturriria. He estimated that about 2,500 people attended the event that day. The picnic was larger than usual because it was also the summer convention of the North American Basque Organizations (NABO), an association of Basque clubs throughout the U.S. and Canada. The confluence of both events resulted in four days of Basque music, dancing, handball and food, mostly at the club’s Union Avenue location.
The festival in Bakersfield is the largest Basque festival in California. Basques, who mostly came to the Golden State in the 1900s to herd sheep, settled in several California cities and towns. But Bakersfield has the largest concentration of Basques in the state.
The NABO convention brought delegates from Basque clubs from all over California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. Representatives from the Basque Government, in Euskadi and New York, and the association of Basque groups in Argentina also came. Dance groups from Bakersfield, San Francisco, Fresno and Chino Calif. performed on Saturday and Sunday.
NABO hosted cooking and baking competitions featuring two classic Basque foods—sausage and Gateau Basque. On Saturday, several people presented their homemade sausages for three different categories: lukainka, txorizo (a spicier version) and tripota (blood sausage). NABO officer Valerie Arrechea organized the event in which it appeared the judges had the most fun, sampling the savory sausages. She said she wanted to add a paté category to the competition next year.
Arrechea was in for a pleasant surprise on Sunday, when people started arriving with their entries for NABO’s Gateau Basque contest. Last year, the first year she organized the pastry contest, she only got two entries.
But in Bakersfield, 25 people baked Basque cakes for the event.
“I love it,” said Arrechea, who had to set up a second table for all the cakes, neatly lined up in rows. After the contest, which was won by Loli Dalia, the cakes were auctioned off and the proceeds were given to support Udaleku, NABO’s summer camp for Basque American youth.
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Three different bands played over the weekend. Two bands came from the Basque Country for the event, Esti Markez Taldea and Luhartz. Glitterfox, an American rock band led by Basque American singer Solange Igoa, also took the stage Saturday evening. They performed their latest release, Xalbadorren Heriotzean, which had the crowd singing and dancing.
The Bakersfield club always brings professional handball players from the Basque region. In addition to exhibition games with those players, the club also hosted competition games by Basque American teams. Handball is the Basques’ national sport.
The NABO delegates met Friday at the Woolgrowers’ Restaurant, where they held a work meeting to discuss their projects to promote the Basque culture in the United States.
Learn more about Basques in the United States in these books. We earn a small commission at no cost to you for purchases made through our Amazon links.
Travel Guide to Basque America by Nancy Zubiri
