Heritage is Part of the Party!

While you carefully go over the program and look over a brochure that’s been handed to you, your mom, true to form, can’t help asking “a few little questions”. She asks:

The cover of a brochure about the Globensky manor. We see a cart pulled by two horses, carrying a man and a woman seen from behind, on a road leading to the Globensky manor.

The cover of a brochure about the Globensky manor, circa 1978

So, it’s all free – absolutely free?

We do ask for a small donation for some activities, but otherwise, it’s totally free. We really want to make it accessible to everyone.

replies one of the organizers.

And I read that you’re promoting our heritage…

your mom goes on.

The organizers are visibly delighted to have the opportunity to talk about the various initiatives aimed at promoting history and heritage at the Fêtes. Their eyes light up as they talk about their meetings with long-time residents of Saint-Eustache and the surrounding area to collect their reminiscences.

One of them tells her about his memorable meeting with a fiddler while he was in the process of organizing a folk music show.

A photograph, edited to look like a comic strip, of a man with a beard and long brown hair. He is wearing a coat, a burgundy scarf, and small round glasses. He is examining a roll of film.

Christian Giraldeau, one of the organizers of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache, 1976

Looking for fiddlers in the county by Christian Giraldeau. Listen to the audio excerpt in French, the written transcription is available in English.

This exceptionally talented fiddler had agreed to come and play at the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache with six or seven other musicians. No one had put together a program; all the fiddlers had just started playing together spontaneously, using a cart as their stage. They’d had “one hell of a party” and introduced a host of traditional tunes to a new audience.

Others recall an elderly couple at whose home they had shot a scene for a film, within which they describe the Saint-Eustache of their childhoods.

A photograph, edited to look like a comic strip, of a man sitting on a chair, singing into a microphone with both his arms raised. He seems to be on a stage inside a big tent. Behind him are four people standing and one person seated.

Louis Bricault, organizer of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache, circa 1976

A photograph of a blue-eyed woman with brown medium-length hair, digitally edited to look like a comic strip. She looks straight at the camera.

Monique Villeneuve, one of the organizers of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache, circa 1976

Shooting the film Saint-Eustache de temps en temps (Saint-Eustache from time to time) by Monique Villeneuve and Louis Bricault. Listen to the audio excerpt in French, the written transcription is available in English.

They were amused but also moved by the trust placed in them by these people, whose stories became part of the film Saint-Eustache, de temps en temps.

Two men, each sitting on a chair, in their home.

Donat and Philippe Légaré, two participants in the film Saint-Eustache, de temps en temps, in their family home, circa 1975

Seeing the line stretching out behind you, one of them exclaims:

Now it’s your turn to go and discover your heritage.

And he pushes you into the crowd.

August 1978, Saint-Eustache Time Stands Still at the Mill