The new Franco Fest has big plans
One of the first hurdles the Franco-American Centre and organizers of next week’s inaugural Franco Fest will be addressing is the public’s idea of what it means to speak French.
“A lot of us think about France when we think of French,” said John Tousignant, the executive director of the Franco American Centre, “and of course people think about Quebec and more broadly Canada, but there are more than 90 countries of the world that are part of the international organization of La Francophonie — the French-speaking world. Many of these countries that either have French as an official language or a commonly spoken one have immigrants that are coming and becoming new residents of the state of New Hampshire.” Some of these areas are West and North Africa, Haiti, and Vietnam, he said. “French is spoken on five continents of the world. This gives us an opportunity to really focus on that cultural dynamic and the mosaic that French provides to our community.”
This is the idea behind Franco Fest 2026, a first of its kind celebration of the French-speaking world, which will be held Saturday, Aug. 22, in Concord. The event’s website describes the event as “a vibrant, family-friendly festival bringing together music, food, art, culture, and the rich traditions of French-speaking communities around the world.”
The coordinator for Franco Fest is Jessica Livingston, who also coordinates Concord’s annual Multicultural Festival. She said the long-term vision for Franco Fest includes a strong focus on the food of the French-speaking world.
“French is spoken all across the world, in many different cultures and countries,” Livingston said. “So we ultimately want to highlight the different foods from around the world that have French speaking as part of their country.”
A combination of circumstances has forced food to take a back seat to other aspects of francophone culture this year, Livingston said.
“Because this is our first year and also August being the busiest month ever for food trucks, we’ve had a little bit of a challenge,” she said. “So, just like the Multicultural Festival, having vendors from different countries around the world [will be an important focus]. We haven’t been able to do quite that this year, but we found a food vendor — a food truck [Peaks]— which has cuisine from all around the world. They do food, like street food from all around the world, which is a really good start.”
There will be three featured musical acts at Franco Fest — West African singer Senie Hunt, Zydeco Band Catfish Howl, and Quebecois singer Josée Vachon. (For more on Senie Hunt, see Michael Witthaus’s story on page 22 of the Aug. 6 issue of the Hippo, available in the digital library at hippopress.com.)
John Tousignant said that many of the festival’s activities will be directed at families. “We have a lot of activities for children planned,” he said. “Children will be able to decorate and bring home some takeaways. Among other things, we will be having people teaching some traditional crafts such as playing the spoons, which is a traditional part of French Canadian culture. We’ll also have a gigueur, which is one of these dancing dolls that people can learn how to use in conjunction with the traditional music. A jig is a type of a dance, and the dolls are called gigueur because they can do a little dance.”
“We’ll also have tables with people from different parts of the French world,” Tousignant said, “such as special guests from Quebec, from the Société des Filles du Roi, which honors a chapter in French-Canadian history. It means ‘The Daughters of the King.’ When New France was founded in North America in the 1600s, it was populated entirely by men, so they needed women to start families. The king gathered girls and women who didn’t have a lot going for them in France, and put them on a boat to send over to start North American French heritage. We’re going to have members of the Société in period costume talking with people and interacting.”
Franco Fest 2026
When: Saturday, Aug. 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Kimball Jenkins Estate, 266 N.Main St, Concord.
More: Thanks to a grant from the City of Concord, this event will be free to the public. For more information, visit the Franco Fest 2026 website at acnh.com/franco-fest; the Franco American Centre at facnh.com, and this year’s food vendor at peaksfoodtruck.com.
Featured photo: Josée Vachon. Courtesy photo.