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.
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