Roberta McKercher Park, Highway 75, Hailey, 10am - 4pm
2008 Fair highlights Songs and Stories from Sheepherding. Special events include:

Peruvian Musicians and Dancers
These Peruvian musicians have been playing together for several years performing Andean music and the contemporary dance music of Peru.

Boise Highlanders Bagpipers, Drummers, and Dancers
The Boise Highlanders formed in 1961 is one of the oldest pipe bands in the northwest. The pipers are complemented by the Highland drums often cited as the most complex form of snare drumming. Dancers join the musicians performing the Highland fling and jigs. Pipers and drummers wear the Davidson tartan. The dancers wear tartans of their choice. This popular group performs regularly throughout the region.

Polish Highlanders of North America
The Polish Highlanders of North America present the folk music and dance of their families, shepherds from the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland. Their dance is found only in this region of Europe. Their singing was once used to communicate from mountain top pastures to valleys below. Now living in Chicago, the group keeps its distinct identity and traditions to pass on to its children.

Oinkari Basque Dancers with Txantxangorriak Basque Musicians The nationally acclaimed Oinkari Basque Dancers were started by a group of Boise Basque Americans after a trip to the Spanish Basque country in 1960. They began the dance group and called themselves Oinkari (a combination of "oinak" meaning "feet" and "arin" meaning "fast" or "light'"). Today many dancers are the sons and daughters of those founders carrying on the traditions of their ancient homeland. The dancers are accompanied by musicians trained in traditional Basque music and its instruments. The Txantxangorriak group of young musicians (primarily between 5 and 15 years old) was formed in 2001 to carry on the traditions of Basque music after being inspired by a similar group from the Basque country who performed at the Jaialdi 2000 International Festival in Boise. The young musicians play Basque music of varying styles and rhythms. They use traditional instruments including the txistu, button accordions, accompanied by pandareta and other Basque instruments. The music they play could have been heard coming from a Basque hotel or boarding house restaurant in Hailey, Shoshone or Boise over 100 years ago.

The Boulder Brothers Celtic and Folk Music
Local favorites, the Boulder Brothers have been performing Celtic and folk music in the Wood River Valley for over 35 years. Its members include Mike McGonigal, accordion, Marshall Ralph, guitar and bohdran and Bill Smith, 12 string guitar, Paul Smith, fiddle and mandolin and Ted Macklin, bass.

Other Folklife Fair features include Sheep herding with dogs, Sheep wagon displays, Spinning and weaving demonstrations, Children's activities, Wool and craft shops

The Peruvian Retablos of Jeronimo Lozano, Salt Lake City, Utah
Retablos represent a very old form of three-dimensional art that combines sculpture and painting to create a mythical or historical scene. Commonly created in earlier centuries for Catholic Churches to illustrate scenes from the Bible, retablos are used today, especially in South America, to depict historical events and scenes from local culture. Peruvian immigrant Jeronimo Lozano creates his retablos by individually sculpting each figure from potato flour to feature religious themes or to illustrate stories of his heritage and his life in Utah.

St. Charles Catholic Church's famous Basque Lamb Dinner
Also at the Fair, visitors will be treated to the St. Charles Catholic Church's famous Basque Lamb Dinner. This feast has been a Valley-wide tradition since 1949 and continues to bring in lamb aficionados from far and wide. It has been the featured food event at the Saturday Folklife Fair since the Festival's inception continuing a treasured Basque tradition and a unique culinary experience.

Lamb Tastings and Talk, 12 - 3pm
Four top chefs will prepare and discuss recipes for selected lamb dishes from lamb ribs, legs and ground meat to Dutch oven stews. At their side, members of the four ranch families who provided the lamb for tasting will tell stories of their respective sheep operations from which this local food comes, its headquarters, grazing landscapes, marketing practices and stories from the generations of ranch families that make up its history.

The restaurant chefs for this project are Chris Kastner of CK's Real Food Restaurant in Hailey, Scott Mason of the Ketchum Grill and Heather Rogers of Riccabona's Restaurant (formerly Felix's) in Ketchum. These chefs provide dining experiences synonymous with fresh local foods and inspired cooking. Allan Laudert, a highly-sought after caterer, is the fourth chef. He is best known for his lamb grilled over an open fire and dutch oven pots of succulent braised lamb dishes.

Chris Kastner will be working with the lamb and family of Lava Lake Lamb and Livestock an amalgam of prominent southern Idaho sheep operations formerly owned by Pete Cenurrusa and Jim Peterson (Carey), Louie Oneida, (Jerome) and Bud Purdy (Picabo). In 1999, this new configuration began under the ownership of San Francisco food and conservation enthusiasts Brian and Kathleen Bean. The operation runs 6,000 ewes. Its headquarters office is in Hailey.

Scott Mason will be teaming up with the Flat Top Sheep Co. family, John Peavey, his wife Diane and son Tom. This operation, four generations old, began with John's grandfather U.S. Senator John Thomas in the late 1920s. The ranch is headquartered 22 miles north of Carey, on land that in 1960 John consolidated to include the headquarters of renowned Scotsman and sheep rancher Jim Laidlaw. The family moves its sheep between its summer range in the Pioneer Mountains and its winter headquarters at the southern edge of the lava rock Kimama desert. Some of its sheep winter and lamb on California pastures. The operation runs 3,500 ewes.

Heather Rogers will share her gourmet cooking skills working with the family of the Siddoway Sheep Company. This sheep operation is five generations old tracing its heritage back to James and Ruth Siddoway who registered their sheep brand in 1898. Their ranch headquarters is Terreton and they move their sheep between this high desert country and their summer range in the Targee National Forest of eastern Idaho. They run 10,000 ewes. (The Siddoways will also be participating in Saturday's Fair at the Siddoway Wool Company booth.)

Allan Laudert will be working with the family of the Noh Sheep Company. This sheep outfit was started by William Noh soon after he arrived in Idaho by train with his family in 1908. Noh settled in the area near Buhl where the family still has its lambing sheds. The sheep company today is run by John, the son of former state senator and sheepman Laird Noh, and John's wife Julie. They are headquartered in Kimberly pasturing their sheep in the hills south of Twin Falls. They have 2,700 ewes.