Despite poor conditions, the community gathered to attend the 40th Vanier Sugar Festival and celebrate Canadian culture, particularly French-Canadian culture.
“It’s our heritage,” said Executive Director Madeleine Meilleur. “It’s very French Canadian, the sugar bush, the tapping of the maple. It’s part of the history of French Canadians.”
Meilleur was presented with a certificate honouring the anniversary by Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stephanie Plante.
Meilleur said the event at the Vanier Museopark is unique, because it features the only urban sugar bush in Canada.
“It was started by a group of volunteers when Vanier was still Vanier, before it was amalgamated with all of Ottawa,” she said.
“They decided to start the maple sugar festival, and it has been going on since.”
The weekend marked the “Community and Family Days” of the festival, with activities set up and open to the public.
Many attended despite warnings of snow on Saturday and freezing rain on Sunday.
Visitors were treated to live performances from musicians featuring various genres.
“I’ve been here many times with different groups, and this is my most current project so it was just a matter of time until they called us up,” said Jean-Marc Lalonde, the lead vocalist from the band Hey, Wow.
“It’s nice to see all the other artists, and it’s got a nice vibe.”
Hey, Wow serenaded a crowd hiding from rain with catchy Francophone tunes about the Canadian experience.
“I wrote a song I had introduced earlier about people asking where we’re from in Canada,” Lalonde said. “The song is basically a celebration of all the really cool stuff like maple syrup, Tim Hortons’s, skating on the pond, fishing in the river and all the stuff everybody can identify.”
“And it’s also about the less fun stuff like mosquitoes and potholes and squirrels in your wall and freezing rain.”
The climax of the festival was an Amateur Lumberjack competition.
The tournament featured four teams of four people, made up of politicians, radio hosts and workers of the festival. They competed in a cross-cut log sawing competition and an axe-throwing challenge.
Coming out on top was the team representing Lumberjaxe axe throwing, led by the father-son duo of Andrew “Loki” Smith and Malcolm Smith.
“It takes a lot of mental power to do that,” Loki said following the cross-cut competition. “I’m just, like, trying to remember my name again.”
The Museopark welcomes people throughout the year to celebrate French Canadian culture.
“We serve meals at the sugar shack during the maple syrup season, from February until Easter Monday,” Meilleur said. “And then we take reservations, so if a group wanted to come and have a meal at the shack, we have a very good chef.”
The park also features a museum dedicated to French Canadian history, that is open all year round.
