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For another year, May is here and the beginning of the annual Basque picnic and festival season in the western US.  This Saturday, May 6^th, the Basque festival in Fresno will be the kick off for the festival season that runs all summer and concludes on October 14^th with the Basque picnic in Rocklin, CA.  Between there will be several festivals including the NABO convention in Buffalo, Wyoming July 21-24. 

San Francisco, CA.   Every summer is punctuated by several dozen Basque picnics and festivals in each community that has a Basque population, or Basque club.  In addition, one of these festivals is NABO’s annual convention that serves as the main event of the season with delegates attending representing their respective Basque clubs from all over the country.  It also serves as a great excuse to attend an event that won’t be short on music, dantzaris, artists, athletes, and audience in general attending from Europe as well as from the States.

The small town of Buffalo, Wyoming and its Big Horn Basque Club alluding to the nearby Big Horn Mountains, is located in a region of the West that saw the defeat of General Custer at the end of the 19^th century, in 1876, year of the loss after the last Carlist War, of the old Basque laws in a big area of the Basque Country. Buffalo is in charge this year of welcoming Basques from all over the country, as well as guests from Euskal Herria in Europe and other countries of the Diaspora. The festivities will take place in the heart of the American West where local cowboys and sheepherders share a deep American sentiment with pride in being Basque.  These are the descendants of the pioneers who arrived more than a century ago and settled here and made these lands their new home, without losing sight of their origin and customs, in this case linking Buffalo and its inhabitants to both sides of Navarre.

Here is a list of the main festivities this summer:

FESTIVALS

MAY

-May 6, Fresno Basque Festival, California
-May 13, Basque BBQ, John Garamendi's Ranch, Mokelumne Hill, CA
-May 20, Txitxiburduntzi Jaia, New England Basque Festival
-May 20, Sagardotegi Dinner, Boise Oinkari
-May 21, Los Banos Basque Picnic
-May 27-28, Bakersfield Basque Picnic

JUNE

-June 4, San Francisco Basque Club Picnic, in Petaluma
-June 10, Winnemucca Basque Festival
-June 25, Utah Basque Picnic
-June 25, Txoko Ona Basque festival
-June 30, Elko Basque Festival

JULY

-July 1-2, Elko Basque Festival
-July 2, Southern California Basque Festival
-July 8, Vancouver San Fermin Fest
-July 15, Reno Basque Festival
-July 16, Gooding Basque Festival
-July 21-24, Buffalo NABO Convention & Basque Festival
-July 28030, Boise San Inazio Basque Festival

August

-August 5, Mountain Home Basque Festival
-August 12. Gardnerville Kantari Eguna & Basque Festival
-August 15, Buffalo Andra Dena Mari Celebration
-August 18-20, Boise Basque Museum Wine Fest
-August 26-27, San Francisco Euskal Etxeko Jaialdia

SEPTEMBER

-September 2-3, Chino Basque Festival
-September 9, Santa Rosa Basque Festival
-September 9, Washington DC, PiperraPalooza
-September 10, Marin-Sonoma Basque
-September 30, Ontario Saint Michael Basque Festival

OCTOBER

-October 14, Susanville Lamb Stew (TBD)
-October 14 Rocklin Iparreko Ibarra Basque festival
-October 22, New England Sagardo Eguna Festival
-October 22, BEO Basque Culture Day