FRANCOFEST IS BACK
Circus, singers, buskers, theatre groups share French culture
Acrobats, jugglers, fire breathers, aerial artists, comic queens, dancers, singers and songwriters will be performing at the second annual Franco-FEST in Gage Park this weekend.
The three-day free festival gets underway Friday, June 24 (Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day), at 7 p.m. with a twohour performance by Vague de Cirque, a family circus troupe from Quebec’s Magdalen Islands, through Saturday and Sunday.
Festival organizers are installing a large circus tent — 18 metres in diameter with a capacity of 200 people — in the park to house the circus that travels in a caravan of colourful tent trailers shaped like Magdalen Island homes.
“We wanted to create another little world in Gage Park,” says Lisa Breton, general director of Le Centre francais Hamilton. “We want to surprise our guests, make them feel welcome and like they’re part of the show.”
As well as the circus, there will be buskers and theatre groups performing on the grass, and some of Quebec’s top musical acts performing on a raised stage. Franco-Canadian, Haitian and Congolese food will also be available.
Franco-FEST, which coincides with Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, bills itself as the largest French-language arts and cultural festival in the Niagara Peninsula. Breton estimated some 5,000 people visited Franco-FEST last year.
“Our motivation is not to grow big and huge,” says Breton, whose centre sponsors the $300,000 festival with help from Heritage Canada and the Ontario Arts Council. “We want to keep it intimate.”
Among the musical talent performing at the festival are Montreal pop-singer Sally Folk, Ottawa singer Gabrielle Goulet, country folk group Les Chercheurs d’Or and the comic pop-punk band Les Trois Accords, whose members have a strange affinity for unicorns.
As well, the festival will host two theatre groups, including the outrageously garbed pair of queens of “Camping Royale,” produced by Toronto’s Corpus troupe.
Franco-FEST closes Sunday night with a special performance by Junowinning pop singer Karim Ouellett backed by a 16-piece ensemble from the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.