Sitting in Edmonton’s French Quarter, La Cité Francophone (along with Cafe Bicyclette) exudes French culture, including beautiful sounds and fantastic food, a few blocks north of Whyte Avenue’s eastern end. But if you’ve been living your best festival life this summer, you may have experienced it elsewhere in the city.
“We’ve had a great season so far,” says La Cité Francophone’s cultural manager, Allen Jacobson. “We were the guest culture at UFest [Edmonton Ukrainian Festival] this year, and at K-Days we had our Francophone stage once again, for 10 days straight, six and a half hours a day of French Canadian and Francophone live music.”
It’s great to see the society spread its musical wings around Edmonton, but there’s nothing quite like the French-Canadian charm produced at the society itself, and that charm is Alberta (and often fiddle) based.
“The Servus Credit Union Patio Series is local and regional music,” Jacobson says, and the series reaches its outdoor peak as the month of August rolls along.
Trombonist Audrey Ochoa — “an exceptional musician, and very dynamic on stage” — will play the August 8 show, followed by Dana Wylie’s homage to the late Édith Piaf August 15. The Edmonton artist has paid tribute to the French legend (aka “Little Sparrow”) since at least her 2003 Fringe Festival hit Tempo de Java, a fitting connection to La Cité Francophone’s Fringe element.
“We call it the French Quarter Fringe Festival,” Jacobson explains. “Our Patio Series is always $15 a person, but for the Fringe Festival — between the 16th and the 24th inclusive, from 7 to 9 p.m. — it’s free. The sets are mostly solo and duo artists, and the idea is to provide people free, wonderful music shows by professional, regional artists.”
Jacobson says that all the shows, whether around town or in the French quarter “on one of the nicest patios in the province,” follow the mandate of sharing the Francophone experience — including the food.
“I had a little taste of the beef brisket off my partner’s plate last night. Don’t tell her — she wasn’t looking — but it was incredible. And the brownies are wonderful with ice cream.”
Sneak your own taste of the Servus Credit Union Patio Series at La Cité Francophone all month long.
