1959 Basque Festival film

This film documents the Western Basque Festival of June 6-7, 1959, that took place in Sparks, Nevada at the Nugget Hotel/Casino—then owned by Dick Graves, whose wife, Flora Agirre, was a Basque from Boise, Idaho born to Guipuscoan parents. The festival's mass took place at the St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral during the festival. The festival was an important milestone for the Basque-American community in terms of affirming the community's cultural heritage and contribution to the development of the American West to a wider audience. This festival was the first time leading Basques came together to organize an event that attracted a wide swath of Basques from across the Western United States, beyond local or regional festivals, and it showed that going forward the Basque community could organize and play a greater role in American culture. While the Basque festival has become an annual event in many communities across Nevada, California and Idaho, this inaugural festival was the largest Basque gathering ever held up to that point in the U.S.