Festival Acadien de Clare
On a warm Saturday evening in mid-August, hundreds of people will line the narrow country highway through Clare municipality to beat the tin bottoms out of their old pots and pans, proudly and loudly declaring their pride in their Acadian ancestry.
The tintamarre or "noise parade' will signal the end of the two-week Festival acadien de Clare this summer, the oldest Acadian festival in North America.
"The tintamarre is to show our pride in our Acadian roots and to show that are people are still strong," explains Marc Boudreau, president and artistic director of the annual festival in Nova Scotia. "You'll hear maybe 1,500 people from one end of the municipality to the other rattling pots and pans or tooting their horns in that parade."
Since 1956, the Clare festival has been a focus for pride in the rich Acadian history and culture dating back 400 years in Nova Scotia. Music, dance, food, theatre and social gatherings of all kinds bring the people of l'Acadie together from across North America to celebrate a unique culture in beautiful Nova Scotia.
The festival traces its roots to a 1955 initiative by a Quebec Catholic diocese to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the deportation of the Acadian people. Several celebrations were organized through eastern Canada. The people of Clare embraced the event, and have made it an annual heritage event ever since.
The Municipality of Clare is often called the French Acadian shore, tucked in the extreme western part of Nova Scotia, and wrapped along beautiful St. Mary’s Bay, between Yarmouth and Digby. The region is the heart and soul of Acadian culture in Nova Scotia.
The predominantly French-speaking population of Clare, normally just shy of 9,000, swells over the first two weeks of August, as the area hosts the annual Acadian festival. Since 2005, when the event celebrated its 50th anniversary, it has been a two-week party from the last Saturday in July to Assumption Day, honoring Mary the patron saint of all Acadians.
This year's festival is packed with down-home entertainment and activity, drawing on the incomparable hospitality of Nova Scotians. The opening gala, held at the Club social de Clare in Little Brook, will feature celebrated Acadia singer Edith Butler. Also on the bill are many excellent local musicians, dancers, theatre performers, visual artists and spoken word performers, paying tribute to the pioneers of Acadian culture.
Clare has twinned with three communities in Louisiana, and established bonds with those Cajun communities. In acknowledging those close cultural ties between Nova Scotia and the Acadian diaspora, Boudreau is bringing in Cajun fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux and the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, two well-known Cajun stars who have played the Clare festival in the past.
"We always host a Cajun night, with all the musicians from Louisiana and we serve Cajun food," says Boudreau. The gumbo pot will be bubbling at the fais dodo en Acadie.
The festival has consistently attracted strong attendance, including scores of faithful fans who come up from Louisiana for the popular Cajun night, with the accordion and fiddle tunes electrifying the warm summer air. "Half of them know it's on, and the other half happily stumble upon it," laughs Boudreau.
Each year, festival organizers look forward to seeing a special returning visitor. A.J. Leblanc, a 71-year old Louisiana resident, has been coming to the festival for many years, helping reconnect with his roots that go back more than 200 years in the Clare region.
Others from Louisiana have bought summer homes in the Clare region and come back each year to reconnect. The bonds of shared Acadian roots, stretched for more than 250 years, easily close together in the relaxed community.
This year's highlights also include the Order of Good Cheer dinner, returning after its debut last summer. The Taste of Nova Scotia-inspired dinner is based on the order created by Samuel de Champlain back in 1606 to keep his officers and men cheerful during the long winters in Port Royal. Monsieur de Champlain himself will be in attendance at the dinner on Aug. 8 in the Saulnierville Legion.
Each year the festival chooses honorary Évangeline and Gabriel from the community to represent the iconic characters from Longfellow's epic poem chronicling the deportation and the tragedy of the separation of the Acadian people.
Two young Clare residents, Jacques Blinn and Melissa Comeau, will represent the festival this year, wearing the traditional costume of their ancestors. Both are local musicians who perform weekly with their group Carions in restaurants in the region.
With the stiff competition for every tourist dollar, the festival markets itself to targeted audiences with a strong appeal for the Acadian flavour of the event. Utilizing regional tourism publications, focused radio and television spots and the broad reach of the Internet, the word is getting out across the land about this charming down-home gathering.
Boudreau, who is also an office manager of a local hardware store, anticipates the festival's attendance will remain strong this year, with upwards of 40,000 participants over the course of the two-week event.
Boudreau and his organizing committee balance the celebration of the traditional culture of Nova Scotia's Acadian people with an eye to contemporary appeal, and the need to engage young people in the history of their own culture.
"We try to bring something to every activity to remind us where we've come from and where we're going."
