Quebec music festival defends anglophone acts

Arcade Fire's latest album is called 'The Suburbs', which is one of the reasons they decided to play in Longueuil. (June 9, 2010)

MONTREAL - A Quebec City music festival is defending its decision to book a number of anglophone acts for the event which started Thursday on the Plains of Abraham.

Dominique Goulet, programming director for the Festival d'ete, says she's mystified by a mini-controvery over the choice of acts, especially since the event has so far sold its highest number of tickets ever.

A number of prominent Quebec sovereigntists have decried an alleged shortage of French at the event and demanded that the provincial government withdraw funding for it.

But Goulet made no apologies in an interview Thursday.

"I'm not booking people speaking French, English, Spanish or whatever," she said in a telephone interview from Quebec City. "I'm just booking the best festival possible.

"Of course we understand that we're part of this francophone culture so we do have a lot of bands coming from the francophone areas -- there's a lot of bands coming from Quebec, there's a lot of bands coming from France and Africa as well. We're not neglecting the French community."

Roughly 60 per cent of the roughly 130 acts come from French-speaking regions, she said. Goulet said some of those acts had opted to perform in English "which is an artistic decision that the Festival d'ete has nothing to do with."

Ironically, the event takes place on the Plains of Abraham, where British forces defeated the French in 1759.

The location has been the site of controversy in recent years, with sovereigntists protesting a re-enactment of the battle as well as a concert by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney that wound up drawing a sea of eager fans.

Goulet said she was surprised some were trying to turn the international event into a "political, social thing."

"It's not. It's only a music festival. It's not something that has to go on such a high level of intensity."

Although Goulet acknowledged the festival was predominantly French when it began in 1968, she noted it was a smaller, more local event then and now the objective is to make it an international festival.

"The festival has changed, I think the society has changed but it doesn't mean that we're turning our back to every francophone act," she said. "There are francophone acts. I just don't understand why people don't see it."

Goulet said the festival, which offers a variety of music types, has sold 130,000 passes so far -- "which is a record."

"This controversy, we've had reactions from all over the place and people are telling us, 'Keep doing what you're doing. We like what you did.' I think it's a small portion of people that are making a big fuss."

The 10-day festival, which started in 1968, is headlining a number of prominent French-language acts including Gilles Vigneault, Loco Locass, Lara Fabian, Madjo and Les Breastfeeders.

Big-name English-speaking acts include Arcade Fire, Iron Maiden, Santana, Rush, Black Eyed Peas and Steve Winwood.

In May, a group of 25 prominent sovereigntists and artists wrote an open letter to Quebec Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre saying the provincial government should reconsider funding the event.

St-Pierre wouldn't get involved. Goulet said members of the legislature actually passed a motion congratulating organizers on the success of the festival.

The group included entertainers Yann Perreau, who has been booked by the festival, and Raoul Duguay, former Parti Quebecois cabinet ministers Claude Morin and Louis O'Neill as well as Gerald Larose, former president of the commission on the future of the French language.

They argued the festival was not following the spirit of Quebec's efforts to promote French.

"The approach favoured by the (festival) is not really consistent with the fundamental orientation of the cultural policy enunciated in 1992 by the Quebec government, to promote 'the French language as an expression of culture' and as 'the foundation of the Quebec cultural identity."'

While the group said it understood the festival had to evolve, it pointed out that organizers had "filled the Plains" with such Quebec acts as Robert Charlebois, Diane Dufresne and Claude Dubois in previous years.

"It is clear the Festival d'ete de Quebec has changed, which is its right, but this evolution now requires a reassessment of grants and sponsorships from the Quebec government and its Crown corporation," the group wrote.

"Generally, new parameters must be established by Quebec to ensure a real concurrance with current policy, which expressly states "the government intends to support activities aimed at promoting French language cultural products on behalf of the entire population, particularly the young."