The wait has been longer than expected. The coronavirus crisis paralysed all large and small acts, including Herri Urrats. On 12 May 2019, the festival of the ikastolas of Iparralde was last held in Senpe, and three years later, songs, jumps and cascades will return to Lake Senpere.

This return will also be especially important as the collection will allow Seaska to open the fifth school. In the Northern Basque Country, the demand for study in Basque is increasing, which has caused the centers to be full of people. The new college in Senpere will, to a large extent, serve to alleviate this lack of space. More than 30 years ago, when Herri Urrats was first held, the festival opened the Cambo Xalbador College, and this year will open the fifth in Senpe, which expect the school to be built for the course 2023.

According to Seaska President Peio Jorajuria, the last two years have been hard, but Herri Urrats is looking forward to returning to Lake Senpere, although they have had to organize in a short time. According to Jorajuria, Herri Urrats is a “very special holiday” for the Basques of Iparralde. First, it is a celebration of thanks to the members of Seaska and all those who have somehow participated in their surroundings, “to celebrate all the work done”. On the other hand, Euskera is offered a large plaza; Herri Urrats is the largest festival held in Iparralde around the Basque country. Finally, a high percentage of Seaska’s budget is reached in Herri Urrats, essential to maintain, expand and create new schools and ikastolas.

Because in Iparralde the ikastolas have a special situation: “There is a law in the French state that the public authorities cannot finance our residences, many of the people’s homes have made commitments, but we know that the financing of the new residences is our responsibility, and that means a great participation in our budget.”

They have achieved this in the last two years, for example, through public campaigns and the 30 Popular Steps that were carried out in 2021: “In each village, in each plaza, each ikastola organized Herri Urrats in its form, which has allowed us to stay in the last two years at an economic level,” the president explained.

The demand for Basque
learning in Iparralde has increased considerably in recent years. According to Jorajuria, in the first level, in the small classrooms, in the last fifteen years the number of students has increased considerably, and the students of that wave that entered the beginning have come to school. The four schools with which Seaska counts exceed the capacity of its students and is costing them to manage them, more so in the case of the pandemic: “Ziburu School was designed for 300 students, but there are currently about 350 students. In classrooms, the teachers have adapted, but outside you can't be all together and the air outlets have to alternate. In the last two years, moreover, they have had to maintain the safety distance, making it more difficult. We need a solution, especially for all those students we have in Lapurdi, and for that we need the fifth school in Senpere,” he says.

The last school opened in Baiona in 2017 to relieve the Xalbador de Cambo school, but in just five years they need to reopen another one. They knew that the fifth school needed in the vicinity of Ziburu, the Casa Consistorial de Senpere made a “very welcome” to the members of Seaska and offered them a plot next to the lake: “We will build the new college next to the lake, so in the place of Herri Urrats we will soon have a very symbolic school.”

The
tests, in Basque Country Herri Urrats this year comes at a special time, so students have been forbidden to take the tests in Basque. Community members have made various protests and actions, but the rector of Bordeaux continues to turn his back on Seaska.

Jorajuria says that behind this attitude there is a dogma: “In France we are a minority language and France does not know its languages. Behind there is a dogma that says that French has to be higher, it’s higher, than minority languages, including Basque, have to be lower.”

France says that there are technical and legal problems, but Jorajuria believes that there is the utility of a language behind it: “They believe that if we get the tests done in Basque, we think that our language serves something. And that's what they don't want. ‘You study a language but you cannot use it. If it cannot be used in tests, why study?’ The struggle for tests has become a struggle for use.”

Wide offer Herri Urrats on May 8 will have
six spaces: Araba, Navarra, Gipuzkoa, Lapurdi, Baxe Nafarroa and Xiberoa. Most concerts will be held in the first three, and in the Lapurdi area there will be Artxeros, bertsolaris and the concert of Nat and Watson.

The main concerts will be held in Navarra. At 14:00 the Skakeitan group, which is about to say goodbye, will be the first concert of the last tour of the Donostian group. The Des-Control group will then act, followed by the working group Willis Drummond.

In all areas you can eat and drink and there will be shows for the youngest of the house.