Music, dance, theater and food will highlight the cultural celebration.

JAY – The towns of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls are joining together for its first Franco-American Festival titled Terre pis Ciel.

The celebration will be held from 10 a.m.t o 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9.

Founder and director Adele Saint Pierre says the three communities offer another language, diversity, food specialties, traditional music and dance, and a people who share a common history that makes them unique.

These people are the Franco-Americans, descendants of the French-Canadians who came to work in the New England factories at the turn of the last century. They speak French, they can cook like the best of them and they know how to have fun.

Saint Pierre thinks this is cause for celebration and invites everyone for a day of traditional and modern French-Canadian music, dance, theater, writing, artwork and food.

The day will be a lively one with music by La Grande Debacle and Tuq, Boreal Tordu, the Pineland Fiddlers and Jay’s own Fred Legere, dance by Les Pieds Rigolants, and theater by Waterville-born playwright, Gregoire Chabot.

Rhea Cote-Robbins, author of “Wednesday’s Child,” (1997 Chapman Book Award) will host a writer’s circle for all people interested in writing about and sharing their experiences as Francos. Hightower and Sparks from Louisianna will be displaying their Mardi Gras masks, and Gloria Varney of Nezinscot Farms will be selling her handmade farm products. Genealogist Robert Chenard will help people with their family trees.

Ethnic foods will feature crepes, pettes de soeurs and creton on homemade bread.

The festival will be held rain or shine at Al and Connie St. Pierre’s farmstead on Route 133 in Jay, about five miles south of Bean’s Corner or about three miles north of Main Street, Livermore Falls.

People are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and appropriate weather shields like sunblock and hats, and to leave their pets at home. Prizes will be given to the first five people arriving on a bike. There is no set admission, but a suggested donation of $5 per family or carload will help cover festival costs and help establish a scholarship to assist one student from Jay or Livermore Falls to study in Quebec City.

For more information concerning the festival, contact Adele Saint Pierre at 761-1535 or [email protected].