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The last night of the Fêtes by Louis Bricault

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. On the lower left corner are the words: “The last night of the Fêtes”.

Image: Photographer unknown (graphic design by Audrey Fauteux-Robillard), circa 1975.
Private collection of Monique Villeneuve.

Audio excerpt: Interview with Louis Bricault, organizer of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache, by Sandrine Contant-Joannin, ethnologist, 2023.
Excerpt length: 42 seconds. Patrimoine culturel Vieux-Saint-Eustache collection.

Louis Bricault was one of the organizers of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache between 1974 and 1978. Here, he talks about preparations for the fireworks display that closed the event. This excerpt of the interview is transcribed below:

Louis Bricault: We were going to, we were setting up our fireworks […] Our knowledge was minimal, you know. […] We set up there, there was a little island behind the church. So we took our [unintelligible word] and we were really happy because it was the last activity. After that, the festival was over for us. That was where our work ended.

So it was, we took… we got in the boat. We always took a case of beer, you know. We went over there with Denis. There were three of us. When we got to the island, we set up our tubes, our rockets, all that. We waited until it was time. We set off the fireworks, you know. We knew that once the fireworks show was over, our vacation would begin.