The Festival, Mirror of the Community

'The festival is in its death throes!' - is the conclusion of the Renaud Report. It issued the following warning to avoid a 'certain death':

[..] it must be noted that political dynamics in the community could put a serious brake on the festival's development [...] because of the lack of closeness between the leaders, the parochial wars between the Fransaskois organizations and the excessive need for dialogue.

Karine Laviolette, in the part of her study called The Fête fransaskoise, self-presentation, put forward the following thesis: the festival's problems expressed the difficulty the Fransaskois had with defining themselves. The festival, while it supposed to be 'a special place for expressing Fransaskois culture and identity', reflected this identity crisis.


Comments

Different players in the Fransaskois community commented on the statement in the Renaud Report that the festival's situation was a reflection of the community's.
Robert Therrien believed that the end of the festival could be blamed, among other things, on the lack of support for the CCF in the community .
(959ko)


Annette Labelle, a former director of the CCF, was of the view that the youth may bring back the festival.
(551ko)


Michel Vézina, a former director of the CCF, saw three things which put a brake on the development of the festival: inadequate funding of the Fransaskois organizations, complicated financial management and the belief among the fund-raisers that the Fête fransaskoise could be self-financing.
(3162ko)


Wilfrid Denis, a former elected representative at the ACF, talked about the suspicion of some Fransaskois organizations with respect to the ACF; that did not help dialogue. He stressed the importance of consultation between Fransaskois organizations, given the limited availability of resources.
(1903ko)