Ihauteriak

The traditional ‘Ihauteriak’ or carnival dances are performed in Basque Country since time immemorial. Celebrated once a year and organized by the ‘Oñatz Dance Group’ in the Oñati village, the event reunites a great amount of villagers that perform the dances through the streets and plazas of the village from early in the morning to midnight.

Music is an essential part of this performance, in which several traditional instruments merge in harmony like the txistu, a kind of a flute that is played with a single hand while the other hand plays the danbolina a kind of drum. Pandereta or tambouine and trikitixa, a variation of the accordion, are the other instruments that set the rhythm of the dancers.

Shot March 5, 2011