The Festival de Joie has succumbed to the same problem that plagues too many organizations.

They become dependent on a leader and a corps of volunteers who are difficult to replace. When Lewiston Mayor Lionel Guay announced last year that he would end his run as chairman of the three-day festival, we had hoped that there would be someone ready and able to step in to fill his shoes.

There wasn’t.

With its volunteers getting older and its leader on the way out, the Franco-American heritage festival has dissolved. Members of the organization hope to resurrect it on a smaller scale. But that’s still up in the air.

The festival’s disappearance will leave a major hole in the Twin Cities’ summer fair calendar. The Festival de Joie, known for its crepes, meat pies and live music, annually drew between 10,000 and 12,000 folks downtown during its 13-year run.

Like other civic organizations, the festival has relied on an aging contingent of activists. It takes about 200 volunteers to staff the festival, and most of them are older than 50. Organizers have not been able to recruit enough younger people to keep the event going in its current form.

We hate to see the passing of the Festival de Joie and hope that its board of directors is able to reorganize the event into a more manageable affair. Part of that reorganization should include a renewed outreach and recruitment effort aimed at attracting younger volunteers.

Even if the group can pull together a smaller festival this year, long-term success depends on passing the torch to a new generation interested in celebrating its Franco-American heritage.