Fiddles and jigs as Festival du Bois announces its return to Mackin Park, April 1 to 3

Jocelyn Pettit, Le Diable à Cinq, Alpha Yaya Diallo, and more music artists fill the grand chapiteau

Le Diable à cinq. Photo by Valérie Ménard.jpg

FRESH TAKES ON Zydeco, Québécois traditional music, Métis jigging, and more are on the roster as Festival du Bois returns to live performances in Mackin Park from April 1 to 3.

After going all online for 2021, the celebration of francophone music and arts has announced a weekend-long outdoor event for in-person audiences, all under the grand chapiteau at the Maillardville sit in Coquitlam.

The fest kicks off on April 1 with a free concert by BC fiddling dynamo Jocelyn Pettit and her Band, along with Friday Night Contra Dance with live music by Sybaritic String Band and caller Maureen Collier.

The following two days under the tent, watch for Le Diable à Cinq, with traditional singers and multi-instrumentalists from Québec’s Outaouais region; Celtic-folk-inspired The McDades; Montreal’s Zydeco-Cajun-meets-French-Canadian-roots-rocking Le Winston Band; guitarist and internationally-renowned musician Alpha Yaya Diallo, who blends West African sounds with contemporary influences; the fiddle virtuosos of Collage Trad; local Métis jiggers; and Afro-Cuban-rhythm-driven Locarno.

As usual, more fun music will be on hand at the Children’s Tent, with the usual workshops, roving performers, French-Canadian food (bonjour, maple taffy on snow!), and market area.

Proof of vaccination required for entry to the Festival du Bois site, with masks mandatory in the tents.

Note that you can get into the bons esprits early with two pre-festival events: Roma-jazzers Christine Tassan et les Imposteures in concert, at Place des Arts March 26; and a screening of L'Arracheuse de temps by Francis Leclerc, March 31 at Cineplex SilverCity in Coquitlam (copresented with Rendez-vous French Film Festival). Both shows are free with online registration at www.festivaldubois.ca.

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