Additional Information
The 24th edition of La Virée Trad takes place from October 10th to 12th for the final weekend of festivities of the season. This event will take place in Carleton-Sur-Mer, in the Gaspé Peninsula, serving as a springboard for traditional music and thus honoring our musical and cultural heritage. Young and old, local or international: everyone is welcome during the weekend where activities, conferences, performances, and dancing will take place between the sea and the mountains. We managed to chat for a few moments with its director, Samuel Téguel, to learn a little more about the program and the surprises we can expect during this long festive break.
This content was produced in partnership with La Vitrine
PAN M 360: What makes La Virée Trad different?
Samuel Téguel: First, the season, since La Virée takes place on Thanksgiving weekend. It’s one of the last festivals of the season in Eastern Quebec. So, in a fall setting, it adds to the uniqueness of the event. Then, of course, the program: we stand out from other festivals where there is only song or pop. We also offer a lot of workshops, whether it’s an introduction to jigging or the violin, and the artists are very accessible. Finally, the atmosphere! You really have to experience the festival to understand the human energy that emanates from it! It’s a place of celebration, gathering, and exchange: between memory and today. La Grande Veillée is the perfect example: if you arrive alone, you will clearly leave having met a lot of people!
PAN M 360: What goal or mission did you have in mind when creating the Festival?
Samuel Téguel: Initially, the idea was really to extend the festive season, while focusing on the four pillars: cultural, social, financial, and environmental. We didn’t just want to have another event that would add to the overabundance of offers during the high season. We wanted an event that would bring people together and reflect who we are. And when we thought about it, we quickly realized that there was a gap in the dissemination and influence of traditional music and song.
PAN M 360: The festival has been running since 2001, more than 20 years, do you have a big team to coordinate everything?
Samuel Téguel: I would have liked to answer yes (haha)! In fact, the team leading the project is that of the multidisciplinary broadcaster, of which I have been the general manager for 25 years. It’s a broadcaster with a dual mandate: we operate a performance hall year-round and we also manage the La Virée Trad project. At the heart of all this are two permanent employees. That gives you an idea of the workload for two people!
PAN M 360: You developed this project in the region, in the enchanting setting of Carleton-Sur-Mer. Was this a way for you to boost the cultural offerings of the Gaspé?
Samuel Téguel: Yes, absolutely! And through the four pillars on which the mission is based, it’s not only the cultural sector that benefits from the positive spinoffs, but all communities: organic food producers and artisans too, since we’re setting up the largest public market in Eastern Quebec. You can fill your fridge with good things, embellish it with original creations, and fill your ears with musical heritage.
PAN M 360: What subgenres of music can we expect during the traditional weekend?
Samuel Téguel: This year, we will have the chance to welcome musicians from Quebec, Acadia, and Belgium. It’s one of the most artistically challenging editions: we will have the opportunity to see and hear Startijenn, who come from Brittany and have been touring their traditional music throughout Europe and Asia for 30 years. We will also have the Traverse project, which won the Opus Prize for Best Traditional Album in 2024. We also have Gentilcorum, winner of the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award. On the Acadian side, we welcome La famille Leblanc, made up of the two parents and their three daughters who recently performed at the Festival Interceltique de l’Orient in Europe. We are also very excited to present La Sporée, a contemporary dance company presenting the show L’écho des racines, where jig and flamenco blend. Finally, to close the Saturday evening, we will have the rather special and always very appreciated passage of DJ DaOve, the project of Dâvi Simard where he puts all sorts of recent Quebec and Acadian folk pieces into the electro twister, always with the intention of honoring the original piece. This paints a small portrait of the diversity of the program that we can expect!
PAN M 360: Are you targeting a particular audience category with this event?
Samuel Téguel: I would say that the essence of trad is to reach an intergenerational audience. There are few musics that generate such enthusiasm among teenagers as well as people aged 80 and over. During La Grande Veillée, which I was talking about earlier, we have more and more young people participating and on the dance floor, we find the little ones, the parents in their thirties or forties and the still-spirited grandparents who come to dance a square set. It gives a beautiful and unusual mix that we rarely find elsewhere! On the other hand, we find ourselves with an audience coming from all over Quebec, the United States and Europe too! We have a very, very broad panel of festival-goers!
PAN M 360: Why did you choose autumn as your period of activity?
Samuel Téguel: Well, we wanted to extend the tourist season and since there are already a maximum number of events in the summer and during Labor Day, we thought about Thanksgiving weekend because the school community is on vacation and since it’s a long weekend, people have the freedom to move around.
PAN M 360: Are you already working on the 2026 selection?
Samuel Téguel: Yes, a little bit! (haha) Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the festival, so we’re working on preparing another great edition for you, but I can’t give you too many clues yet.
