The ‘Maine’
Event is
Coming in
August 2014
By Richard M. Lyness
World Acadian Congress organizers are
busy planning northern Maine’s biggest
celebration event.
Maine, New Brunswick and Québec’s
biggest cultural event will take place in the upper St.
John River Valley in August 2014.
Between Aug. 8 and Aug. 24, some 50,000
to 100,000 people will converge on the region to
take part in the Congrès Mondial Acadien 2014.
The congress, held once every five years since 1994,
assembles Acadians from all over the world.
People up and down the 89-mile-long river
valley, on both sides of the river, speak French, often
as a first language, in addition to English. Their
ancestors migrated up the St. John River from La
Baye Françoise (Bay of Fundy) in the 18th century.
A high percentage of Aroostook County residents
report speaking a language other than English in the
home (19.5%), according to U.S. Census figures,
presumably in a much higher proportion in the
St. John Valley. Likewise, a high percentage of
county residents report as being of French ethnicity
(35.5%), presumably in a much higher proportion
in the Valley.
Acadia of the Lands and Forests, an area
of mountains and forests bisected by the upper
St. John River, will be hosting the 2014 congress.
The territory includes parts of three political
jurisdictions: Maine, New Brunswick and Québec
province. In this region, the upper St. John River
serves as the international boundary between the
United States and Canada: northern Maine is on
the U.S. side, and northwest New Brunswick and
a part of Québec province are on the Canada side.
Québec’s Témiscouata Lake region, a historic canoe
portage between the St. John and St. Lawrence rivers,
once served as a means of communication between
the colonies of Nouvelle (New) France: Acadie
and Québec. Port Royal ― present-day Annapolis
Royal, Nova Scotia ― was the principal settlement
of Acadie.
The Congress will take place across the
7,855-square-mile territory surrounding the town
of Madawaska, Maine, and the city of Edmundston,
New Brunswick, which face each other across the
SUMMER 2013
11