Marie-Élaine Thibert still as efficient as ever
At the start of the evening, the pride of Saint-Tite Cindy Bédard was on stage at the Vieille Prison, she who has just released a new album Couldn’t have been anything ordinary. Later, Jorane walked the stage just like the former academician Marie-Élaine Thibert who was full of voice and confidence on the Monastery side of the stage.
Singer Marie-Élaine Thibert offered a show with varied influences on the stage of the Monastère. (Stéphane Lessard)
The latter offered a varied performance combining her successes, but also several well-known covers. Let us mention in passing a short tribute to the late Little King Jean-Pierre Ferland with the interpretation of the piece A chance we have and the room A little higher, a little further with singer Jean-Sébastien Lavoie. A nod to Queen Tina Turner with Simply the best made more than one smile. A work that has followed Thibert since 2004 in his shows, confided the artist.
A hug signed Lépine
On the Fleuve stage, the large crowd of festival-goers were able to experience an evening in two parts. The first was like an embrace given by Marie-Annick Lépine, multi-instrumentalist of the Cowboys Fringants who has just released an album. The widow of singer Karl Tremblay offered her works with the authenticity and sensitivity that we know her for, as with the piece Hair and the other sidewalk, particularly touching. “It’s an intense ride that doesn’t really lend itself to a festival. But we’re going to try it together,” said the artist before delivering his poignant words.
A special mention goes to a highlight of the performance when musician and composer Jean-François Pauzé of Cowboys Fringants joined Marie-Annick on stage to Thanks a lot! An electric current literally ran through the crowd after this surprise.
A surprise that was also one until this Thursday morning for the FestiVoix team, who received confirmation of the artist’s arrival in Trois-Rivières. The revival of the piece Shooting Stars and the presence on stage of Lépine’s two daughters created a real communion within the audience, provoking a silence rarely observed in a festival of this magnitude. Another tip of the hat to the complicity that emerged between Lépine and her companions Catherine Durand and Mara Tremblay who offered a beautiful musical moment combining their instrument with sometimes passion and sometimes finesse.
An Acadian party with Les Salebarbes
Later, the Acadian group Les Salebarbes warmed up the crowd as expected. From the first notes of harmonica and violin, we saw several festival-goers take a few little dance steps to chase away the river wind to the tunes of The last time et Good Lord.
Energetic and warm, the group quickly forged a connection with the audience, making jokes like “There are more people here than in the entire province of New Brunswick” or emphasizing the similarity between Trois-Rivières and their homeland. “On the waterfront like this, it reminds us of home!”, the group said in turn. Playing rhythmic pieces, Les Salebarbes created a real party worthy of Acadia in the heart of downtown Trois-Rivières.
At the time of writing, the evening continued with a tribute to Bob Bissonnette on the Quai stage. On Friday, it will be the turn of artists Nicola Ciccone, Marc Dupré, Philippe Brach and Ludovick Bourgeois to tread the festival boards.
To discover the program and details of FestiVoix which continues until July 7, go to https://festivoix.com/fr/.
