Horse Remedy | The Press

The North American fascination with Stetson-capped cowboys, cowboys, dashing or not, is well known and documented.

Thus, there are dozens of country or western festivals in our country, it depends, and some see in these events a strong remedy for their local economy.

But we very often come across a copy, a filly or a calf generally resembling another.

The anthropologists Bernard Arcand and Serge Bouchard have well described this mystique of the Colorado gaucho, with their book Cowboy at heart.

How many Quebecers have prayed to Sainte Nostalgie or Loto-Québec so that they grant their wish to own a ranch, or a kind of nickname, for their retirement. They danced line dances to dream of a Nebraska in Arthabaska.

Aside: did you know that there is a Flying Pig Festival? In Saint-Alexis-de-Matapedia. Pig, it’s fine, but flying… I’ll have to go to the SQDC to understand, as for the last one I saw, 100 years ago, Pink Floyd’s pink pig, which hovered, like the public, during shows .

A few memories like that, lassoed…

Western festival of Saint-Tite, a few years ago, invited by the mayor at the time. I imagined it big, the deal, but not big enough: huge and delirious! Completely captivated, and I loved it.

I even took part in the parade, bobble head (wobbly head) and floating hands, universal purveyors of politeness and “babies”. It was going strong on the kowtow! And thanks again to the Boulet Boots for the equipment. But it is not Saint-Tite who wants to.

The cities of Quebec and Calgary have been twinned for decades. Invited to the Stampede, we were in front of a few thousand people at the foot of the Grandstand, as they call it, before the Chuckwagon race.

Since 90% of this crowd had a drink in their hands, and seeing that the party was taken, I thought that a speech that would exceed 30 seconds would be a really bad idea.

I run in 27 seconds and 15 hundredths. Phew!

A federal minister from Quebec, whom I will not name out of modesty, follows me and reads for several minutes a totally boring text on our beautiful and great country. A complete disaster.

It rushed hard in the Granstand. Embarrassing, I would have unplugged the microphone if I could. Misery !

This passion for the gringo on horseback also crosses borders. A friend, burgomaster (mayor) of Brussels, was so passionate that he wore cowboy boots all day long, all year round… in Brussels, look for the error! With the Walloon accent, a fascinating caricature! Goscinny would have freaked out.

All this to tell you that I have just returned from a stay in Grande and Petite-Vallée, in Gaspésie, two places stuck one above the other.

I went there to meet regional leaders, at the invitation of Alan Côté, founder of the Théâtre de la Vieille Forge and director of the Festival en chanson de Petite-Vallée.

Grande-Vallée also created a country festival three years ago, surely with the best intentions in the world…

The Festival in song, he, returned to his 40^e edition, a miracle in itself, has become a cultural institution in Quebec. It welcomes thousands of people every year, attracted by a program built with the greatest French-speaking Quebec artists.

I spoke with these leaders about my experience, and how a city, small or large, can develop a distinctive personality, a profitable brand based on culture.

And how Quebec, riding the wave of the 400^eand by investing all the necessary money there, has created a real buzz that has led it to be labeled as a place teeming with cultural activities where magnificent and singular artists evolve.

And why, among other things, we have chosen to focus particularly on the next generation, by creating the Première Ovation program, which, in 15 years, has supported 19,000 young talents in 13 disciplines.

On another scale, this is what Grande and Petite-Vallée could become, by making greater use of the possibilities of their Song Festival, and thus helping to retain and attract the necessary young people, new families, more tourists, give back the taste to those who have left to come back, etc.

As did the singer Daniel Boucher, whom I met on that occasion, who now lives in Mont-Louis and who wishes to welcome a new “sick gang” to the Gaspé Peninsula, as he sings in Desire.

Now, the festival’s performance hall, the Théâtre de la Vieille Forge, burned down in 2017, and everything has been operating temporarily under a marquee ever since.

Everything is ready to start the reconstruction work next August. Obviously, open bids show higher than expected costs, like all infrastructure projects in Quebec.

Hopefully governments will give the go-ahead in time for their final financial contributions to meet the deadline. We are talking about a monument here!

The Festival en chanson is to Gaspésie what the Festival d’été is to Quebec.

And I still believe that it is with this raw material, culture, that we can concoct the best horse medicine.