Stir Pairing: For a weekend of world music and French Canadian fare, just add local craft beer
Festival du Bois is serving up everything from Celtic to Mexican-folk-inspired music, alongside a menu of Québécois classics like tourtière and assorted Yellow Dog Brewing ales
Tourtière.
Photo via Yellow Dog Brewing.
Every week, Stir Wine Pairing suggests locally available food and beverage to go with a local arts event.
The event
Festival du Bois, April 1 to 3 at Mackin Park
The food
All the things at the fest
The beer
Yellow Dog Brewing’s core beers
The lowdown
You could call Festival du Bois a music fest with electic styles from around the world and a celebration of French Canadian culture, and you’d be right. But at its very core, its ultimate goal is just plain simple: to bring people together and spark a little joie de vivre.
“Every year when people come to Festival du Bois, my hope is always that they discover our community, and that’s not just about music and art but it’s also about community spirit,” the fest’s artistic and executive director, Joanne Dumas, says in a phone interview with Stir. “I heard someone being asked about why they come, and they said ‘I come here because I get a sense of freedom.’ It was a nice homage to us. If people come and feel it’s a free feeling here, that’s what it’s all about—come and have fun, sit down and have a beer, maybe dance a little—just enjoy yourself. Take it all in, listen to great music, have a sense of discovery. We want people to have a good time—that’s what we built it on.”
Joanne Dumas.
A native of Montreal, Dumas remembers when her mom came to visit her for the first time following her move to the West Coast about 27 years ago. The two toured around Maillardville and at the end of the day, Dumas asked her mom if she had enjoyed it. “She said it was wonderful,” Dumas recalls. “Then she looked at me and said: ‘Now I’m convinced you’re never coming home.’ For her it was exactly that: that community feeling. She said, ‘I feel you have something here you never had in Montréal.’ Being here and working to create activities for Festival du Bois… I’m a sucker for my community.”
While Dumas admits that one of the things she misses terribly from her hometown is Montreal smoked-meat sandwiches, a big part of the programming at Festival du Bois is the food—in particular, la cuisine traditionelle.
The day Stir connects with Dumas, she had just spent the previous weekend in an industrial kitchen with a group of volunteers—all with their FoodSafe certification–making tourtière, or French Canadian meat pie, in this case made with pork, beef, and potato. One of the bakers is a 97-year-old woman who has been helping out for years. “That in itself is amazing for me—that is what the community spirit is all about, and I hope that’s what people get from this event,” Dumas says. “Last week there were seven or eight of us, and we made 100 tourtieres. It’s very time-consuming! The week before that we had done another 100, as well as tarte au sucre [sugar pie]. It’s really fun; we put music on and we all chat and sometimes there’s a little step of dance. We just giggle. It’s good, wholesome community spirit.
So what else is on the Festival du Bois menu this year? There’s the mighty Lumberjack Plate, with pork and beans, tourtière, split-pea soup with him, coleslaw, pork pàté, and bread. (All of those items can be purchased separately.)
A perennial highlight is the André Beauregard Sugar Shack. Named after a devoted, late volunteer, this is where festival goers can witness “tir”, or maple taffy, being made on snow, and sample the iconic Québécois treat. It’s also where people can pick up cans of authentic Quebec maple syrup to take home.
Then there are food trucks: poutine from La Poutinerie, crepes from B&B Concession, African fusion food by Madani’s Kitchen, mini donuts from Tin Lizzy Concessions, Sicilian risotto balls from Mr Arancino (new to the fest this year), and all kinds of coffee served up by Insomniac's Coffee Co. And a pancake-and-maple-syrup breakfast takes place on April 3 at 10 am.
The pairing
One of the best ways to wash down an indulgent plate of piled-high, gravy-laden, cheese curd-crowned poutine is with an ice-cold beer, and Yellow Dog Brewing will be on hand as the fest’s official beer supplier. The family-run Port Moody-based craft brewery is pouring its assorted core brews, which include Play Dead IPA, a big beer with a fruity kick, and the High 5 Hazy, which has heaps of hops that deliver flavours of stone fruit and grapefruit. We’re especially keen to fetch a Retriever Golden Ale, bright and refreshing—just the thing for a weekend of so much liveliness and laughter. Santé!
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