LEWISTON — Melanie Saucier should have been a nervous wreck. Just 16 years old, she stood on the stage at the Franco-American Heritage Center Friday night. In front of her were more than 200 people waiting to be entertained. She was to sing three anthems in both English and French.

Was she intimated?

“Not really,” she said.

It was a piece of cake. Or at a Festival FrancoFun, perhaps a piece of crepe.

“She sings in nine different languages,” said her mother, Diane Nadeau-Saucier. “She’s been singing in Lewiston since the age of 7.”

And so she began, belting out the French anthem, “O Canada” and the U.S. national anthem. She moved seamlessly between the two languages. Her voice soared. If there were bats in the rafters of the converted church, they felt her notes.

“She’s quite a singer,” said Aliette Couturier. “Wow.”

And so the evening was under way and the weekend event was in full swing.

As Saucier moved on to the next song, Couturier was moved. Seated in a metal chair, she began to sway and bounce to the music. It was, she said, sort of a seated version of Dance De Canards, the duck dance.

“I’m just keeping the beat,” Couturier said.

Music was the main highlight, the big draw of the evening. And when it comes to French music, it doesn’t get much bigger than Jean Guy Piche, scheduled to go on at 8:45 p.m.

“The people love him. He’s a stage man,” said Lou Jordan, a festival volunteer. “You just say his name and people go crazy.”

They came early to get good seats for the show. They ate and listened to Saucier belting out tunes in that cherubic voice. They filled up on food, and, oh, there was food.

On the menu were the main staples of a Franco festival: tourtiere and salmon pie. Crepes and blood sausage, “boudin” to the French.

“We’re the only people outside New Orleans who still eat it,” Dan Roderick said. “The trick is to eat it with a lot of mustard.”

The festival is set to continue all day Saturday and wrap up with a breakfast on Sunday.