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The US cities of Ketchum and Hailey in Idaho this weekend celebrate the Trailing of the Sheep Festival, an annual celebration held every fall to move the flocks off the mountain to their winter grazing homes.

Since Ketchum and Hailey were always in the path of sheep ranchers moving from high summer pasture to lower winter grazing, John and his wife Diane came up with the idea of turning the entire affair into a festival to honour the rich heritage of sheep ranching in Idaho.

Held in 1997 for the first time, the Trailing of the Sheep Festival gathers, presents, and preserves the history and culture of the families and individual men and women in Idaho''s sheep industry and honor their contributions to the development of Idaho and the West.

Sun Valley, an affluent resort city in Blaine County in the central part of Idaho, is used more generally of the region surrounding the city, including Ketchum and Hailey. The region has been a seasonal home to the rich and famous, including Mats Wilander, Ernest Hemingway, Tom Hanks, Demi Moore, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, Ashton Kutcher, Richard Dreyfuss and Mohamed al-Fayed.

Basques usually play an important role in the celebration as its was mostly Basque immigrants that took to shepherding in the early 1900s. Oinkari Basque dancers are a regular feature in the festival as well as the camp/sheep wagon, the place in which the Basque sheepherders would live during their long stays in Idaho''s mountains and which has become the official image for a license plate honouring Idaho''s Basque heritage.

Weekend celebration

The festival starts on Friday afternoon with various workshops that include cooking lamb with gourmet chefs followed by a Gallery walk and then an evening of music, poetry and storytelling.

On Saturday, the Sheep Folklife Fair in Hailey features regional artisans working with wool - shearing, carding, spinning and weaving and sheep herding demonstrations, Peruvian musicians and dancers, Oinkari Basque dancers, the Boise Highlanders, bagpipers and drummers, sheep wagon displays, children''s activities, wool and crafts shops and lamb-tastings.

The end of the festival is marked by the Trailing of the Sheep Parade, a nigh on 100-year-old tradition led by one of the local sheep ranching families as well as historic sheep wagons, musicians and dancers.