Acadie Rock Presents National Show, Work Of 70 Artists, As It Goes Online
MONCTON – Acadie Rock, an annual multi-disciplinary festival that usually attracts around 20,000 people, has had to “reinvent” itself this year, says director É
ric Cormier.“The program was all pre-taped, so it’s pretty weird this year, because you know it’s ‘press play and watch the festival,’ ” he said.
“Usually at this time of the year we’re in the middle of a parking lot installing the stage and doing soundcheck and everything. But it’s different, the rush was before [the show]. But we’re really proud of the result, and mostly we were able to give some work to the artists again this year in this weird situation that we’re all in.”
The team at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre, which produces the festival, received approval of the grant committee to host the large outdoor show on March 9, and two days later, everything changed, Cormier says.
“So after that we just decided, well, we had to change the plan completely,” he said. “The original plan was to do a big outdoor show with [up to] 20,000 people. So we sat together, a bunch of great minds in the same room, we brainstormed and came with that idea – let’s do road trip and let’s go ahead all the same.”
Around 70 artists from various disciplines are involved in this ninth edition, including young and emerging artists, as well as veterans. They include musicians, visual artists, poets and others.
The festival runs from August 12-18. It began on Wednesday with an exhibition by visual artist Marjolaine Bourgeois at Aberdeen Cultural Centre, followed by a conference led by Bourgeois via Facebook live. That was followed by a live music show on Facebook featuring Denzel Subban and Nebullama.
Organizers also recorded a live show by Julie Aubé to be streamed online at a later date. She played in front of a physically-distanced audience of 50 people at the Verger Belliveau Orchard in Memramcook. It will be the only live show in this year’s festival, Cormier said.
“It was fun to see. Julie Aubé was really happy to play in front of a crowd for the first time in the last five months. That’s the last show that we recorded last night,” he said.
This year’s festival included more partnerships with galleries, youth groups and other organizations, Cormier said. And with the large outdoor show gone, the focus is on the smaller pieces of the festival and the peak of the festival, which will be on Acadian Day on August 15.
On that day, the Tintamarre tradition will take place between Shediac and Cap-Pele. This year, attendees will be in their cars instead of walking.
On the same day, Radio Canada will nationally broadcast a poetry and music “road trip” called Acadie Road, named after the poetry collection of Gabriel Robichaud.
In the show, the poet will travel across the physical, sociopolitical, historical and cultural landscapes of Acadie. Musicians like Lisa LeBlanc and Spoutnique, as well as dance company DansEncorps are among the many artists also involved in the film.
The regions to be showcased include Moncton, Dieppe, Edmunstron, Kedgwick, Caraquet, Memramcook, P.E.I., Lousiana and Nova Scotia. Cormier’s team hired different camera crews for each province and state.
Cormier said while it’s difficult to recreate the community feeling of a physical show, the audience seems to be receiving the online offerings quite well.
“We’re lucky enough that our public, I think they have confidence in what we offer every year,” he said. “It’s not easy to recreate that feeling…Tintamarre and people there and everything. It’s not easy and I’m sure we’re not going to have the same results. But in the situation that we’re in, we’re pretty happy with the results.”
The full program can be found here.