The Story Continues

In 1985, your family moves again so that your mom can be closer to her new job. After you leave, people in Saint-Eustache find new ways to express the vitality of their community.

The Corporation du Moulin Légaré and the Festival de la galette

The eight board members are sitting around a wooden table inside the Légaré mill. On the right side of the photo, we can see the bolting cloth used to separate the flour from the bran.

Corporation du moulin Légaré board members, 1992

In 1976, motivated by the same desire to preserve local heritage that drove the organizers of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache, a few people get together to found the Corporation du Moulin Légaré. Now known as Patrimoine culturel Vieux Saint-Eustache, the organization works to preserve the mill and the millers’ expertise. It produces the first Festival de la galette in 1985 to attract visitors to the mill.

Two female cooks are making pancakes on a hotplate while a woman waits, holding a plate.

Festival de la galette, 1993

The City of Saint-Eustache and the Arts en Fête festival get involved

In 1978, the City of Saint-Eustache purchases the Légaré mill to ensure its preservation. Two years later, it purchases a convent that had belonged to the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, which will become the city hall.

In 1987, the City dusts off the historical costumes and logo of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Lower Canada Rebellion. A number of activities that had been part of the festivities in the 1970s are revived to commemorate the history of the Patriots, and to bring the community together. The following year, the City of Saint-Eustache launches a festival called Arts en fête to celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. In the first years of the event, there are four days of performances by a number of artists. People can admire the work of craftspeople and budding painters, tour the Légaré mill, and naturally, sample the famous buckwheat pancakes!

A colour photograph of the four members of the group Les Colocs, seen from the side, on a stage. Two of them appear to be singing into a microphone and two are playing the guitar.

The music group Les Colocs at the Arts en fêtes festival, 1998

A photo of the singer Dédé Fortin on a stage, holding a microphone.

Dédé Fortin, the singer of the group Les Colocs, at the Arts en fête festival, 1998

Local celebrities, Québec stars, established and emerging artists take to the stage during the Arts en fête. Among them is a group no one has heard of in the early 1990s… Les Colocs! Jacques Langlois, coordinator of the city’s Arts and Culture department at the time, is the one who first suggests inviting the group, which makes Saint-Eustache its own and adopts it as one of its “pet” cities.

Both the Festival de la galette and Arts en fête take up elements of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache, making them in a certain sense its worthy heirs.

The Party’s Over! September 2024, Saint-Eustache