Without principle there is no end and no end or start. The road may be longer or shorter, but the footprint is left by the residential. Taste sometimes sweeter, sometimes more acid. Above all, however, Arizkuneses Albaro Soule and Eider Bidegain are pleased with their work. Because announcing the final does not have to be sad, it has been a decision of its own.

The guest artists have been cared for very gently and they have also felt grateful back. Despite being a small town, which does not reach the 600 inhabitants in Arizkun, in the Baztan Valley, they are satisfied because the project created almost ten years ago has borne fruit.

Many musical groups have gone through the stage of Arizkun Square. Or more than “passing”, “they have felt vigilant” after the treatment given by the organizers. “They take better care of us than at any macrofestival,” Soule said. And Bidegain adds: “Musicians realize the value we give to treatment and care. A good relationship emerges that is remembered. And we have very good memories.”

It could be basic and minimal, but in that exchange you've realized no, that something makes the Arizkun Rock festival special. If it's not, it's hard to understand what the environment is created. To be able to represent it in some way: the festival organizers are usually about guest artists, they are warmly welcomed, they eat together and the deal is very close, in essence, they try to leave a good memory. From the artists' point of view, in the middle of summer, traveling to a small town in the Baztan and receiving such warmth can make it special, not only the performance, but also the return trip. This has been
said, among others, by the members of the Esne Beltza group.

The organizers of these years have tried to give pleasure to the guests and believe that they have succeeded because they have received the reply. Soule: “A manager told us how special it was for them to play here. In these cases, their reality is that they go to the concert venue, that a half-drunk young man tells them where to park the van, where to disassemble things, where to go for dinner… And I don’t care.”

But walking like this wears. Soule says they could let “do those things,” he thought on more than one occasion, and perhaps it would have been better than in his place “four small prepared things and a good drink.” But no: “We enter that world because we want.” And Bidegain, to go even further, has turned to the base: “On his role, how would I like him to treat me? From there we left. We will not offer something we would not like to receive.”

Tiredness, not only for thorough care,
Bidegain and Soule are responsible for the Arizkun Rock festival. Two young people, no more and no less. And they get tired. There are a little more people who add to the posts, even for similar concrete works, but there is a lack of stronger and more constant columns next to them.

They are asked whether, however small, there has been no youthful ‘exodus’, if there is no emptying distress in the case of the Navarros. Or, for example, if the youth of Arizkun do not live in Elizondo or in another town of Baztan. "A little bit," maybe yes, but they've given a negative light: "We're young in town, 60 and peak or yes. It is not that, it is that there is no desire to do many things.”

What happens then? Those who have joined the aid, those who have joined the organization, see how the work behind it entered and have left it as they did and the festival ended, say the two interviewees. It seems that this trend is repeated year after year. What Soul has heard almost year after year is “Beno Albaro, I know what work it is to do this, I have been at ease, but I am leaving.” Both say it is a trend that is repeated every edition, and last year. In the best years they have become four members of the organization, a couple of years or even three people for several years, who now organize the festival together.

The issue of generation can be the cause of the lack of relief. In some cases there is a lack of relief, or that the relief given is much lower than the previous one, in others. Soul clearly believes that “Today we want to receive everything done. There is no work, no militancy, and the spirit of auzolan is being lost.”

And without going any further, they have given several examples: the organizers of the Baztaneses Congress offered a kind of “ultimatum” for this year’s edition, “demanding” the relief of descendants, and the group has emerged in the last hour. They also said that in the Bilbao txosnas they also have fame and that they apparently have problems forming an elite team. They say there are, but there are few. “And people miss out. When you do something concrete, for example, another two hands, or four, or six, imagine!, would come fine -- but it's not. In our case, we have stayed both.”

The young people met and held a big meeting in Arizkun to talk about the continuity of Rock. “We got together 20-30 people, Eider and I explained what needs to be explained, how the situation was, the bad picture… But nobody was encouraged. We also have a group of young Whatsapps, and from there we have released the messages, but nobody has told us anything.”

The festivities are organized among young people, but they have their peculiarities. Every year the so-called daminausi alternate. There are four young people, on whom the organisation depends, at least in the majority, on most of the efforts made, on the holding of accounts, etc. “They’re more traditional stuff and we’re used to that, we’ve approved it,” says Bidegain. As each year they change, they adapt as an organization of portal commissions or gastronomic societies, people have internalized that it should be. “If this model did not exist, we would have to see if people would come together to organize the parties.”

Open music, for all One peculiarity is that
Arizkun Rock is a festival that is offered for free compared to the most popular festivals. The biggest experience between the two is Soule, who has had a thousand different ways of working during these years, wondering why they don’t work with ticket sales: “It would be easier, from the point of view of funding, to sell tickets, but I think it would change the concept of Arizkun Rock, because for us music is wider, freer and bigger.”

In addition to the festival concept, Bidegain has put on the base that the town is held in the center and with the help of the people: “I don’t imagine that the plazas of the town are closed and control the entrances and exits. The concert is at the door of the house, in the village square, so it has to be free.”

The festival is organized at the festivities. It's a one-day holiday program, but the only holiday offer is Arizkun Rock. Three or four musicians or musical groups are on stage, from the afternoon to the small hours of the morning. On the hottest days of summer, young people give life and bellows to the people who should die a lot. That is why the festival must also be free. And they don't care how many people are coming, because whoever wants to enjoy music has the opportunity. Also, a lot of people get closer because they're the town parties.

Just getting closer, for the good of everyone, Bidegain says they are also “very happy”: “The bars, the sales, the rural houses and the restaurants
of the town appreciate that there is some tourism, although, of course, far from the levels of Erratzu and Xorroxin. The latter are filled in summer; ours is empty. At least, even if it’s a week, there’s a little life in our country.”

But the momentum is also bilateral, as local businesses are a great source of funding for Arizkun Rock. As it is free, the philosophy of the festival coincides with what Soule says: “We rely on self-management, we do not receive subsidies, but we are aware that local businesses are a fundamental pillar. Here is also the treatment and vigilance mentioned above: we go to them, we talk to the boss, we explain the project, who we are, what we want, what importance it has for the people of Arizkun, for the valley… I think it is also worth it.”

The immense festival that claims the values takes off its route and does not do it every autumn. For the moment they will rest, but they have a small challenge, or at least a possible challenge, in the short and medium term: they have been given the opportunity to make an audiovisual documentary about Arizkun Rock’s trajectory.