By Jaime McLeod,Special to the Sun Journal

WHAT: 13th annual Festival de Joie

WHERE: Railroad Park, Lewiston

WHEN: 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. today

COST: $9 for adults, children under 12 are free

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call 782-6231 or go to www.festivaldejoie.org

C’est si bon
Festival regales participants with food, entertainment

LEWISTON – The east bank of the Androscoggin River overflowed with people Saturday, as thousands packed into nearby Railroad Park for the 13th annual staging of the Festival de Joie.

The event, which celebrates the region’s French-Canadian heritage, kicked off Wednesday night with a parade through downtown. It will end tonight after five jampacked days of music, crafts and food.

Each year, as many as 10,000 people take part in the festivities, said Lionel Guay, president of the Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary’s and chairman, for the last 12 years, of the Festival de Joie.

“They come for the entertainment, and they come for the food. We make all of our own food, that’s why we need so many volunteers,” said Guay.

In fact, it takes about 175 volunteers to make the festival run smoothly through the weekend.

More than a dozen cooks and servers formed a tight assembly line behind the order counter at the food tent, C’est Si Bon Caf – for the Franco-phonically challenged, that means, “It is so good” – during the wee hours of Saturday morning. Even with so much help, piling the plates of hundreds of hungry festivalgoers high with eggs, sausage and, of course, crepes, seemed a tall order for the volunteer chefs.

It wasn’t all thankless work, however. Several diners shared words of praise for the herculean effort.

“I come for the crepes. They’re better than mine, and I don’t get them very often,” said Fleurette Caron, a resident of the Mezzome Court Retirement Home in Lewiston.

Caron wasn’t alone in enjoying the festival’s culinary offerings.

“The food is wonderful,” said Nancy Higgins of Lewiston, who has lost count of the number of years she has attended the festival.

Higgins said she enjoys the food and entertainment so much that she would return year after year, her Franco-American heritage notwithstanding.

“Today, everyone is French,” she said.

Higgins, like many attendees, can trace her ancestry back to at least one of the French-Canadian immigrants who flocked to the area during the latter half of the 19th century to work in the once-flourishing mills.

Junior Frechette, of Sabattus, and his brother Mark, of Turner, are no exception.

“I’m French through and through. You can’t get more French than me, except I don’t speak it” said Junior.

“We come every year to see family we don’t get to see much. It’s like an extended family reunion,” added Mark.

Crafters from within the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as from far and wide, chatted amiably in both French and English with potential customers. The vendors were grateful for the milder weather Saturday, since heavy rain and high winds Friday afternoon had wrought havoc with some of their wares.

“All of my stuff got blown away. It took me two hours to untangle all of my jewelry,” said Kathleen Saucier, a crafter from Auburn who has participated in the Festival de Joie since its inaugural in 1993.

“I think I had a friend from the Knights of Columbus who told me about it,” recalled Saucier.

The local chapter of the Knights of Columbus sponsored the first year of the Festival de Joie, before a separate nonnprofit group was formed to oversee the annual event.

And though vendors like Saucier and Clyde Merry, proprietress of Sherman-based Merry Moose Candles, are stuck behind their tables, that doesn’t mean they can’t get into the festival spirit.

“I can see everything and hear all of the music from here. It’s been a lot of fun,” said Merry, who read about the festival online and traveled more than 100 miles to sell her soy-based scented candles.

Merry’s fellow vendors Marine and Jameela Abdullah, from Massachusetts, could be seen dancing Friday night away next to their tables full of handmade, African-inspired jewelry.

A full schedule of performers took the stage beginning at 5 p.m. Friday and resuming at noon on Saturday. Among crowd favorites were the Tinpanic Steel Band, a group of steel drummers that brings the sound of Caribbean Island grooves to the locales of Central Maine.

“The steel drum band was incredible. I’d like to see them come back every year,” said Higgins.

Today’s performance schedule includes bellydancing by the Sahara Desert Dancers of Conway, N.H., French folk songs by Quebecois-born and Maine-raised singer and guitarist Josee Vachon, ethnic music from Peaks island-based accordion ensemble The Maine Squeeze, big band classics by Vintage and the country and western sounds of Wendell Roach.

“It’s a good time,” said Paulette Blackburn of Lewiston.

“I come every year, and I think I always will.”

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