The Cowboys Fringants will play in overtime at the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) next Monday evening, preceded by Robert Charlebois and Sara Dufour, as had been planned last Thursday evening before a line of thunderstorms forced the cancellation of the shows. exteriors. “After having had a difficult week, then an incredible day yesterday [jeudi]it’s the best resolution we could find, “commented bassist Jérôme Dupras after the press briefing announcing the good news.
This 7e concert at the FEQ des Cowboys — and 11e performance on the Plains of Abraham in career — has not yet taken place that it already marks the history of the festival: for the first time in 37 editions, the organization will add a second Monday of concerts to its line-up.
“We do it because we can, because they are local artists and because they are important to us,” commented artistic director Louis Bellavance. Also because we sold all our tickets two hours after they went on sale, so we plan to have enough budget surplus to cover that. The organization will have to extend several tens of thousands of unforeseen dollars to make the happiness of the musicians and the fans: “It is expensive – more than $50,000, agrees Mr. Bellavance. We need the collaboration of all our suppliers, our equipment manufacturers, our stages, our staff, our technicians, the ticketing system, there is nothing simple about this decision. It took a nice trick of magic to make it work. »
Thursday noon, Louis Bellavance was already thinking about the possibility of moving the concerts of Dufour, Charlebois and the Cowboys to the following Monday. In addition to having to mobilize the FEQ organization, the decision also requires the agreement of the National Battlefields Commission, the City of Quebec and its police department. Late in the evening last Thursday, “we had the ‘go’, we were only waiting for the agreement of the police”, arrived at 9 am Thursday morning, specifies the artistic director.
“We agree that it’s huge,” recognizes producer Claude Larrivee, co-founder and CEO of La Tribu, the record and show company of the Cowboys Fringants. “You think of closing the festival on Sunday evening and finally, you say to all your teams: we continue for 24 hours more. I salute the people of the FEQ, it’s extraordinary — I’m telling you that, it gives me chills. We are affected. “And relieved: the producer had hired a technical team to ensure the recording of the concerts of Robert Charlebois and the Cowboys Fringants “to keep archives of these two shows. Above all, we wanted Charlebois to perform in the best conditions and for the Cowboys to meet their audience. It had to be.”
Especially since the FEQ has a special character for the members of the Cowboys Fringants, assures Jérôme Dupras: “It has always been magical to play at the festival. We grew up with him; personally, I attended it with my father, I discovered gypsy music here, I saw big shows. When we had the chance to open for Plume Latraverse—it was in 2001, if I remember correctly—it was for us the achievement of a big step in our career. »
During this press briefing held at the Armoury, the FEQ organization awarded the Cowboys Fringants its Mirror of Fame prize, highlighting “the contribution of monuments to Francophone music”; Quebec-based singer-songwriter Ariane Roy received the L’Espoir FEQ prize, which comes with a $20,000 scholarship.