Our club participates in many events throughout the year, here are some things we've been up to!
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Living Traditions Festival 2025 Recap!
The Living Traditions Festival was once again a great success for our club! Even with cooler temperatures and heavy rain on Sunday morning (yes, there was literally a river running through the middle of our booth), our amazing volunteers showed up with energy, warmth, and resilience. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect, collaborate, and strengthen the bonds within our community.
Running our booth requires the support of 20–25 volunteers each day over the three-day festival, and this year we had an incredible 50 club members and friends step up to make it happen (including a volunteer friend of the club who traveled from Boise to help) .
We truly could not pull off this important fundraiser without you all. A heartfelt thank you to each and every volunteer—your time, effort, and good spirit mean the world to us. For those who couldn’t help this year, we hope you will consider joining us for the fun next year- Save the dates: May 15-17, 2026.
We want to acknowledge a few individuals who went above and beyond this year:
Sonia Castanon, Tony Barajas, Christina Echeverria, Dominic Echeverria, and Xanti Echeverria for supporting the booth every day and shift of the festival—including Thursday night prep for churro dough and kroketak making.
Dan Gaztambide for his assistance with getting the propane tanks filled, setting up the booth Friday afternoon, and for fixing our extra churro press this year.
Phil Archibeque for generously driving and providing the trailer to haul our equipment to and from the festival and then back to storage on Monday morning.
Sonia Castanon and Tony Barajas (under the guidance of Trudy & Javier Guerricabeitia) for leading kroketak production with excellence.
Trudy and Javier Guerricabeitia for once again providing a warm and nourishing breakfast for volunteers on Sunday morning.
The cleaning crew who came and helped Monday morning after the festival to ensure everything was cleaned up and ready for storage: Cirbie Sangroniz, Dan Gazambide, Shamar Lejardi, Dominic Echeverria, and Christina Echeverria
A special acknowledgement to our younger generation of club members who made time in their busy schedules to support the future of their club by working at the booth over the weekend and/or who helped with any pre-festival work:
Xanti Echeverria, Mikel Gaztambide, Madeleine Gaztambide, Maitane Woodin, Cedar Hoover, Ace Stevenson, Ben Stephenson, Ava Johnson, Kate Singer, and Elias Cendagorta
Also a thank you to the Utah’ko Triskalariak dancers for putting on a great performance Sunday for the 15-20 people who stood in the downpour to watch! You did an amazing job and we are always so proud of how you represent the club and our members! Thanks for being great ambassadors for the club!
If you’d like to hear more about the outcomes and highlights from the festival, please join us for our next club meeting on June 20, 2025 (details on location and time will be in the next club newsletter).
Thank you all for making this year’s event a success. We’re deeply grateful for your continued dedication and support!
Christina Echeverria, Shamar Lejardi, Sonia Castanon
Living Traditions Festival Fundraiser Co-Chairs
Introduction to Basque Mythology
On April 11, the Basque Club of Utah hosted a new and exciting event—Introduction to Basque Mythology—and it was such a fun and fascinating evening! We got a glimpse into the rich beliefs of our ancestors, and it was incredible to connect with that part of our heritage.
Nikki Gorrell was an outstanding lecturer—knowledgeable, engaging, and well-versed in the subject. Big thanks to those who chaired the event , to Nikki, the dean, and the group of students who joined, and to everyone who volunteered and helped make it all happen. Dinner was absolutely delicious, and the company even better.
Here’s to more events like this one!
Odolki Jana 2025
On March 1st, we held our annual Odolki Jana and Mini Mus Tournament!
In the morning we had our Mini Mus Tournament, congratulations to Pantxo and Jayden for winning 1st place, and Zach and Anthony who won 2nd place!
For the dinner we gathered together to eat a delicious meal featuring the odolki (blood sausage) that was made by a group of club members the week before. Thank you to those who chaired both events and to everyone who helped cook and clean. The food was delicious!
This event helps keep an old Basque tradition alive and that's why we're here!
Odolki Egina 2025
Our annual Odolki Egina was on February 22. Our club members gathered to carry on the tradition of making blood sausage. It's a fun day full of tasty food, good laughs and good people, and of course some rounds of Mus afterward. A week after the sausage is made, we have a dinner where all of our club members can enjoy the handmade odolkia!
41st Annual Dinner and Dance Fundraiser 2025
The Basque Club of Utah's 41st Annual Dinner and Dance Fundraiser was a great success!
The Utah'ko Triskalariak put on an amazing performance, the food was absolutely delicious, and we not only met, but surpassed our silent auction fundraising goals this year!
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those who attended, and to the many volunteers who dedicated their time and energy to making everything possible.
Your support was instrumental in making our event a success and in furthering our mission to preserve and celebrate Basque culture and traditions.
Annual Christmas Party 2024
The Basque Club of Utah's Annual Christmas Party was a fun-filled night with dancing, music, good food, and a visit from Olentzero!
The Utah'ko Triskalariak put on an amazing performance, they've been practicing diligently and it shows, as they are getting ready for Jaialdi!
Thank you to those who chaired the event, and those who volunteered. Thank you to Caryn Larrinaga for writing a beautiful story to introduce Olentzero to our club members.
Basque Club Creepy Casino Night 2024
Our Creepy Casino Night held on Oct. 19 was an absolute blast! The atmosphere was lively and fun, and the costumes everyone wore were great! Congratulations to all the prize winners and Congratulations to all of our best costume winners:
Best Kid's Costume, Memphis Aguerre: Hei Hei (from Moana)
Best Adult Costume, Christina Echeverria: Captain Hook
Best Group/Couples Costume, Marcel Gaztambide and Bria Rubie: The Belly People
Thank you to Carina and Catherine Barajas for chairing the event, and thank you so much to all who helped during the event and those who helped clean up at the end! Everyone who worked for the casino company did a great job teaching members how to play, working with our group, and keeping the night lively.
Carmelite Fair 2024
The annual Carmelite Fair was held on September 15th. The Utah'ko Triskalariak put on an amazing performance and we can tell they have been practicing hard for these performances!
Thank you to Shamar and Robert for volunteering to work at the Basque Club of Utah food booth selling chorizo sandwiches to raise funds for the Carmelite Monastery.
Basque Diaspora Day 2024
We celebrated Basque Diaspora Day with a Mini Mus Tournament and communal dinner at the park! Congratulations to Shamar Lejardi and Scott Berriochoa for taking 1st place, and Sonia Castañon and Tony Barajas for taking second place.
Thank you to Tony Barajas for chairing Mus and Catherine Barajas for chairing the event, thank you to all those who helped and to everyone who came, it was a nice evening to celebrate being Basque .
Basque Club of Utah Picnic 2024
The Basque Club of Utah's Annual Picnic was a fun summer day! We started with a beautiful mass, the Utah'ko Triskalariak put on a great performance, and we played the Jay Shortsleeve Memorial Horseshoe Tournament afterward.
Congratulations to Tony Barajas and Pantxo Aguerre who took 1st place, and Zachary Cendagorta and Xanti Echeverria who took 2nd.
Thank you to everyone who braved the heat to come together, to the collective group who chaired the Picnic, to Fr. Dave Van Massenhove for celebrating mass, and to the chefs (all of the food was delicious!)
Living Traditions Festival 2024
The Board of Directors would like to thank all the volunteers who helped at the club’s food booth at the 2024 Living Traditions Festival!
We had a good turnout of volunteers as well as people from the club who came to the booth to visit. Special thank you to Trudy and Javier Guerricabeitia for leading the production and making the majority of the 3,184 croquetas we sold during the festival. They were delicious and we sold out of them in the final hours of the festival. Thanks to those volunteers who each spent about 10 hours preparing the 85 gallons of churro dough the night before the festival. We only had a small amount of dough left at the end of Sunday so we were able to sell churros right until the festival closed.
We also want to acknowledge the members who helped make signs for the booth, set up the payments system, the group who helped load/unload the trucks and set up the booth on Friday morning, those who filled the propane tanks for the grill and fryers, the more than 40 club members and friends of members who worked in the booth preparing and selling orders, and thanks to the crew who stayed after the end of the festival and helped pack up the materials from the booth into the trucks after the festival.
Last, thanks to the final few who came on Monday after the festival to clean the equipment and put things back into our storage unit. This event took hundreds of volunteer hours, and we couldn’t have done it without every volunteer! Once again, the festival seems to have been a successful fundraiser for our club.
The FIRST Basque Club of Utah TXOTX! 2024
The Basque Club of Utah Txotx was a lot of fun! We had a packed house. Excellent food cooked by Jean and Monique Flesher. Sonia Castañon infused some Euskera into the evening through song. She printed the Basque lyrics, along with their English translation, and the crowd sang together. Thank you to Scion Cider Bar for letting us use your space for our event, and Thank you to the employees at Scion who worked hard throughout the evening, serving drinks and food and also clearing off tables and washing dishes. Thank you to everyone who came early to help unload and set up and to those who helped load everything back up at the end. It was a great evening at our first Sagardotegi dinner and Txotx! Thank you to everyone who came and made this a memorable experience!!
Korrika 2024
Korrika 2024 in Utah was a success! We had a group of members, friends, and dogs join and do two laps around Sugarhouse Park together. Thank you to everyone who donated and to all those who participated in the event! We will be using the donations collected to further teach and use Euskara in our club. It’s only through participation that we can keep Euskara alive.
Special thanks to Sonia Castañon, Tony Barajas, Carina Barajas, and Shamar Lejardi for the work they put into the event, including making the Harro Herri neckerchiefs.
Goazen Bicycling Club
Club member Raphael Larrinaga hosted the first official ride of the Goazen Cycling Club on Sunday, September 24 with an 18-mile round-trip ride along Legacy Parkway Trail. They rode from the Mountain View Park Trailhead in Woods Cross to the Starbucks in Farmington Station and back (9 miles each way). They also had a little break for coffee and then they did their return leg. Goazen Txirrindu Taldea!
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