Organized since 2012, the Kostalde Baleada is a flagship event of Ibaialde, a Basque cultural, sporting and festive association. The event helps finance the plural activities and projects of this association with 250 members. There are those who come to row, and/or those who come to sing, and/or those who come to dance: all come to share a culture. “You would come on a Wednesday where it sings, there are more than 80 people here,” smiles Pierre Camus, secretary of the association, created 46 years ago.
“A desire to create”
When Ibaialde was launched, its president, Jean-Marc Landarretche, was 20 years old. “There were several of us who were part of a Basque dance association and we wanted something else. It was a time in the Basque Country when there was a big dynamic around Basque culture, a desire to create. In all the villages, associations were born with the desire to ensure that this Basque culture was not solely dedicated to folklore. Ibaialde joined this movement with the desire to encourage people to be interested in Basque culture. The idea was to create events, if possible festive, around sport and Basque culture with the aim, not of putting on a show, but of making people want to participate,” recalls Jean-Marc Landarretche, co-founder of the association.
Ibaialde was “born on the banks of the Adour in Bayonne Saint-Esprit. When we lost this premises, we moved to Anglet. It was 35 years ago. We moved into premises on the banks of the Adour too, so we didn’t even need to change the name,” says Jean-Marc Landarretche, since Ibaialde means “on the river side” in Basque.
Pierre Camus and Jean-Marc Landarretche, respectively secretary and president of Ibailade in the rowing training room, recently designed as a team by members of the association. Émilie Drouinaud / SO
“Acteurs dans la fête”
And since then, water has flowed under the bridges, the association has gone from around twenty members at its creation to 250 today, participating in events that have become essential. “The taste for creation and animation has allowed us to contribute to local sporting and cultural life,” presents Ibaialde on her site, citing different events to which she contributes. Like the Dantzazpi at the Bayonne Festival, “so that people come together to dance the mutxiko, at a time when it was not as popular as it is now. A lot of people came through here to learn mutxiko, which boosted the registrations,” recalls Jean-Marc Landarretche, who also highlights the Kantaleon, a small booklet of songs allowing festivalgoers to participate. With this same stated objective: “to allow people to become actors in the party, to make the party”… to do so in the sense of contributing culturally to it.
Today, “we have no problem in terms of mobilization but we are aware that the average age here is quite high”
Sportingly, the association was also imaginative with the Korrikleta, a running and mountain biking race for teams of two, the Hirukasko, a sporting hike for which they have since passed on, and therefore, since 2012, the Kostalde Baleada which aims to be a “quiet” event. at the rhythm imposed by the tide. The idea was born “from the desire to interest people in the history of the Basque Coast, in maritime heritage, and obviously in the history of the whale”. Hence the play on words, balea meaning whale in the Basque language, notes the president of the association.
