San Juan

In Quebec, June 24, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, is a party. Parades, big budget concerts, block parties awash in the blue and white of the fleur-de-lys. Canada Day celebrations pale in comparison.

Here, San Juan has no nationalist associations--it's a celebration of the longest night of the year. The traditional way to celebrate it, like so many traditions passed down over generations, is really fun, but really dangerous. Every neighbourhood sets up a huge bonfire, which is the centrepiece of the evening's celebrations; beer stands and music are secondary, though necessary. You write your regrets for the past year and wishes for the year to come on a piece of paper, and toss it into the fire. Burning of school books and notes is optional. Then comes the dangerous part: jumping over the fire. You have to do it in order for your wishes to come true.

but as one of my students put it, you start out the evening preparing the fire and drinking beer. Then, the height of the flames is inversley proportionate to your level of drunkness. By the time you feel courageous enough to jump over the bonfire, the flames have burnt down into coals. some municipalities have banned the bonfires, but some still have officially sanctioned events, and others still just continue the tradition anyway.

Ibilaldia 2009

There's a certain predictability to many of the fiestas and festivals in the Basque Country. Whether they're celebrating a patron saint or a holiday, there are usually stands selling drinks, sandwiches and talo, maybe some traditional baked goods or food products or farm-fresh produce, and a stage with entertainment, all open-air.

The Ibilaldia, held last weekend in Galdakao, was all of the above, but with certain variations on the above themes. First, it's a yearly festival held to promote the Basque language, organized by a local ikastola, or Basque-language private school, who get to collect all the proceeds. Everything was in Basque, from signage to announcements, and most of the people at the event were speaking Basque too--not so common for an event so close to Bilbao. The entertainment--music, poetry, etc.-- was Basque-centred as well.

And the coolest part of the event is that it was spread out over 6 sites in and around the town and surrounding countryside. So that meant short hikes through the woods between beer tents, and different atmospheres happening simultaneously on different stages. It added a kind of outdoorsy note to what would have otherwise been your typical festival of light-hearted summertime debauchery.

Here's the promotional video for the festival. Conspicuously absent from this video are the hordes of drunken teenagers we saw in groups along the trail; I've been told getting together with your under-age friends to get drunk on kalimotxos at the Ibilaldia is kind of a rite of passage.