Francophone festival wants to raise French culture awareness

Lisa Breton was worried about her children missing out on Canada's French culture when she was living with her family in New York, so she did the only sensible thing she could do.

She and her family moved to Hamilton.

Breton, originally born in Sudbury, considers herself a typical Franco-Ontarian. She grew up with two French-speaking parents and studied in French throughout her school years, including her four years at Laurentian University.

After meeting her husband and moving to upstate New York, she immediately felt a loss.

"I couldn't explain it, but it was challenging and almost sad to see that they weren't going to be around such a definitive aspect of Canadian culture," Breton said.

"So my husband decided to move. He left his job. We left our home and chose to move back to Hamilton for the sake of living in French. That's my biggest motivator for this weekend."

Breton is talking about Francofest Hamilton, an event of which she's the executive director. It's a festival aiming to promote French culture in southern Ontario, but also hopes to spread awareness of the large francophone populations living in Hamilton.

"Everyone's surprised that there are francophones in Hamilton," Breton said. "But there are 12,000 that are just born and raised here."

And the number of French-speaking Hamiltonians is only getting bigger.

Aside from the core, there's been a rapid increase in Hamilton's French population because of immigration. Between 2006 and 2011, Hamilton's francophone residents increased by 50 per cent, many of those from France and African nations, Breton said.

Those numbers factored into expanding the 32-year annual event from a one-day showing to a three-day festival, showcasing some of the best French artists and performers from around the globe.

Breton said these acts will have mass appeal for all attendees with French backgrounds, and even non-francophones.

"We're just trying to be as diverse as possible to reflect the diversity in our community," she said.

The festival, located in Gage Park, begins Friday July 3 and ends on Sunday July 5.

Here's some of the acts you can catch at Francofest Hamilton on Saturday:

Mike Ford, 2:00 p.m.

A Juno nominated franco-Ontarian solo artist who has released 7 acclaimed albums of Canadian history-inspired songs.

Ottawa Stilt Union, 2:30 p.m.

A bilingual theatre company from the Ottawa-Gatineau area with a love of stilt performance.

Hamilton Aerial Group, 9:30 p.m.

A not-for-profit aerial arts club making the circus arts accessible to the community.

Mélanie Brulée, 4:30 p.m.

Once a busker on the streets of Australia, the Cornwall, Ont. native is keeping true to her French roots with memorable singing performances described as "passionate and raw."

Monogrenade, 6:00 p.m.

A band that's garnered attention in Europe with their eclectic French pop sound, Monogrenade has been described as "one of the finest groups of our time" by the magazine Les Inrockuptibles.

There will be a variety of acts all throughout the weekend. To get a full schedule of Francofest or any other information on the event, visit www.francofesthamilton.ca.