Sheep have been trailing through the Wood River Valley of Idaho for well over a century-and-a-half and are an integral part of Idaho\u2019s western heritage. It is only fitting that they take center stage at the 29th\u00a0annual celebration of the iconic Trailing of the Sheep Festival,\u00a0October 8\u201312, 2025, which celebrates the\u00a0sheep, herders, history, and food of this unique tradition, and is\u00a0recognized as one of the \u201cTop Ten Fall Festivals in the World\u201d by\u00a0msn.com.
\nEach fall, the Trailing of the Sheep Festival honors the 150+ year annual tradition of moving sheep (\u2018trailing\u2019) from high mountain summer pastures down through the Valley to traditional winter grazing and lambing areas in the south. This annual migration is living history and the focus of a unique and authentic Festival that celebrates the people, arts, cultures, and traditions of Idaho\u2019s sheep ranching families, highlighting the principal contributors \u2013 the Basques, Scottish and Peruvians.
\nThe five-day Festival includes nonstop activities in multiple venues – history, folk arts, an authentic Sheep Folklife Fair, lamb culinary offerings, Wool Fest classes, music, storytelling, National Qualifying Sheepdog Trials and, the always entertaining, Big Sheep Parade with over 1,200 sheep hoofing it down Main Street in Ketchum.
\n2025 Festival Highlights include:
\nBig Sheep Parade\u00a0with 1,200 sheep trailing down Main Street in Ketchum, Idaho.
\nNational Qualifying Sheepdog Trials\u00a0featuring 80 of the country\u2019s most talented border collies and their handlers competing for top awards.
\nSheep Folklife Fair\u00a0featuring Basque, Scottish, and Peruvian dancers and musicians, sheep shearing demonstrations, 80+ sheep and wool product vendors, and children\u2019s activities.
\nSheep Tales Gathering\u00a0will feature\u00a0Dr. John Bieter, professor of History at Boise State University, and I\u00f1aki Arrieta Baro, head of the Jon Bilbao Basque Library at the University of Nevada, Reno, who will discuss the lertxun-marrak or arborglyphs – unique cultural artifacts that were etched by Basque sheepherders during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the aspen groves of the Western mountains.
\nCulinary Events\u00a0with For the Love of Lamb tastings, Lamb Fest at the Folklife Fair, Cooking with Lamb classes and a Cheese Making class, and Farm to Table Lamb Dinners featuring Idaho lamb from local ranchers.
\nWool Fest\u00a0featuring 22 classes and workshops on creating with wool.
\nHappy Trails Closing Party\u00a0in\u00a0Ketchum Town Square (before and after the Big Sheep Parade) featuring vendors, food, and live music.
\nFor the detailed schedule, tickets, and lodging deals, visit\u00a0www.trailingofthesheep.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sheep have been trailing through the Wood River Valley of Idaho for well over a century-and-a-half and are an integral part of Idaho\u2019s western heritage. It is only fitting that they take center stage at the 29th\u00a0annual celebration of the iconic Trailing of the Sheep Festival,\u00a0October 8\u201312, 2025, which celebrates the\u00a0sheep, herders, history, and food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,81,83,84,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-event","8":"category-history","9":"category-idaho","10":"category-in-brief","11":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22624,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22623\/revisions\/22624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}