LEWISTON – Lionel Guay calls it “festival mode.”

It’s the time before the Festival de Joie begins, before the tents rise, the volunteers arrive and the crepes begin cooking at the C’est Si Bon Cafe.

“You take a look at that field and it’s bare,” said Guay, the festival coordinator for the past 11 years. As he looked forward to the coming week, he figured he would get no more than four hours of sleep each night.

“You psyche yourself up,” Guay said. “You listen to the music and you think about what you have to do.”

There’s a lot to do.

This year, Guay, his leadership team and an estimated 200 volunteers will be trying to make up for 2003’s event. Though it was a success, downpours of rain on the first day kept many people away. Revenues suffered.

Typically, the festival draws between 10,000 and 12,000 people over three days.

So, the festival is making some changes.

The number of stages – often occupied with simultaneous performances – has been cut from four to three. The craft areas are being gathered under a single, larger tent. A space has also been set aside for Franco-American writers and composers. They plan to hold readings and signings.

Meanwhile, a new children’s play land has been added. Organizers plan to have a second inflatable bounce house, one of the most popular attractions at past festivals, and a new variety of games and prizes.

However, the changes will take little away from the festival’s traditional attractions and performers, many of whom have been performing here for years, said Guay.

They include The Travelers, Gizele Laliberte, Rene Turgeon and La Tournee du Bonheur. The will be joined by several new performers. Among them are 9-year-old country singer Brian Philip Wardwell and Cafe Accordion Orchestra, a Franco-American band from Minnesota.

Every year, the festival celebrates international culture, especially Franco-American music, food and writing. Four years ago, the event was moved from the Central Maine Civic Center, now the Colisee, to Railroad Park, sandwiched between downtown Lewiston and the Androscoggin River.

The festival has settled in there, becoming at home on the wide open space, much as its prelude is a regular fixture on Lisbon Street, Guay said.

For the festival’s prelude, two blocks of the street, from Pine to Main, are blocked off.

The pattern will be identical to past years, said Phil Nadeau, Lewiston’s assistant city administrator. Back in December, the City Council approved a 24-item request from festival leaders, including the use of police officers on security details, a $5,325 donation and the closure of the section of Lisbon Street.

Venders will set up booths. Downtown restaurants will put tables on the sidewalk. And on Wednesday evening, an hour-long parade will march by.

As in past years, Shriners plan to have mini-trucks and go-carts. There will be clowns, the Kennebunkport-based bagpipe band, The Dunlap Highlanders, antique cars and lots of politicians.

Guay, Lewiston’s mayor, said he has received calls from politicians from around Maine and from presidential campaigns.

“I’ve gotten calls from as far away as New Jersey,” said Guay. Politicians will be free to attend, as long as they don’t hand out campaign literature, buttons or stickers.

“One candidate asked if he can pass out candy,” he said. “We’ll allow that, but nothing else.”