Loto-Québec Sponsored Festivals 2016

Launch of the festival season sponsored by Loto-Québec

June 16, 2016

Loto-Québec is one of the main sponsors offestivals and events in Québec. The Corporation supports some 80 events all across the province. This summer, it is investing close to $10 million in the community.

Loto-Québec offers a new entertainment experience 2.0 It will  be deployed and available to festival-goers starting July 7, 2016:

#InTheCloud will be launched at the Festival d’été de Québec. Then it will go to other festival sites: Just for Laughs, Osheaga, ÎleSoniq, Heavy MTL and Festival Mode & Design. The “memory catcher” will be taking pictures and videos, and festival-goers will be invited to share them on their social media using a tablet. It will be Selfie time.

“Loto-Québec offers a world of entertainment. Our partnership with unifying events is part of the concrete actions we take to be among people. The public can therefore take part in high-quality festivities, at little to no cost”, stated Lucie Lamoureux, Director of Social Commitment at Loto-Québec.

Loto-Québec sponsors 80 festivals across Quebec and a few other regions. This is the list of the Loto-Québec sponsored festivals in greater Montreal araea:

LES FRANCOFOLIES DE MONTRÉAL
9 - 18 June, 2016 
FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL
29 June - 9 July, 2016
L'INTERNATIONAL DES FEUX LOTO-QUÉBEC, MONTRÉAL
2, 9, 13, 16, 20, 23, 27 and 30 July, 2016
FESTIVAL MODE ET DESIGN DE MONTRÉAL
15 - 20 August, 2016
MONTRÉAL COMPLÈTEMENT CIRQUE
7 0 17 July, 2016
LES WEEK-ENDS DU MONDE AU PARC JEAN-DRAPEAU, MONTRÉAL
9 - 17 July, 2016
FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL NUITS D'AFRIQUE, MONTRÉAL
12 - 17 July, 2016 
FESTIVAL JUSTE POUR RIRE, MONTRÉAL
16 - 30 July, 2016
MONDIAL DES JEUX LOTO-QUÉBEC, MONTRÉAL
16 - 30 July, 2016
COUPE ROGERS, MONTRÉAL
22 - 31 July, 2016
HEAVY MONTRÉAL
5 -7 August, 2016
FESTIVAL DE THÉÂTRE DE RUE DE LACHINE
11 - 13 August, 2016
FESTIBLUES INTERNATIONAL DE MONTRÉAL
11 - 14 August, 2016
SOMMET DES ARTS ET DE LA MUSIQUE DE LONGUEUIL
1 - 5 September, 2016
IMPACT DE MONTRÉAL
6 March - 23 October, 2016
MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE
16 February - 4 March, 2017
FONDATION DE L'ATHLÈTE D'EXCELLENCE SAISON 2016-2017
CANADIENS DE MONTRÉAL SAISON 2016-2017

On the photo above, from left to right: Jacques-André Dupont, président-directeur général de L'Équipe Spectra, Sylvain Parent-Bédard, président-directeur général et fondateur de QuébéComm et du festival ComediHa!, Anick Dumontet, Lucie Lamoureux, directrice de l'engagement sociétal de Loto-Québec, Pierre-Luc Boisvert, cofondateur du Festival de la poutine de Drummondville et bassiste du groupe Les Trois Accords, et Martin Roy, président-directeur général du RÉMI

Le Mondial des Cultures Drummondville

Le Mondial des Cultures Drummondville

31^st edition

July 5-15, 2012

An international folklore festival Le Mondial des Cultures Drummondville is presently held at the Woodyatt Park, located at the heart of Drummondville, a town in the Centre-du-Québec region. It was formerly called the Festival Mondial de Folklore (World Folklore Festival). It is basically a folk dance festival. During the eleven days of celebrations, dozens of renowned artists and folk ensembles from around the world participate in this event. In recent years, it has attracted on average over 300,000 visitors per year.

On a late afternoon, when I had my chance to travel from Montreal to visit the site, I was able to watch 3 folkloric groups to perform to considerable audiences.

The first one was from Martinique, the photo above. Their cheerful Caribbean music and rhythm quite enchanted the audience as they watched intently the dancers' every move.

Nearby, at the Espace Jeunesse stage, I found a Polish folkloric group. They consisted entirely of adolescents ranging in age from 12 to 17 years old. Yet despite being so young, they put on a great show. Their performance was charming and well appreciated. Their costumes were very colourful, making the girls look radiant.

After they finished the formal part of their performance, they initiated audience participation, inviting all the children present. There was a considerable number of children since the Espace Jeunesse stage is located in the children's playground area. 

The performers have left the formal stage setting and were teaching children a Polish dance right on the grass of the playground area. It was quite obvious that the children appreciated very much this possibility to get involved in a culture they did not know before and to dance to music so different from what they usually hear in Quebec.

The next group I had a chance to see at yet another stage at the festival, was from Cyprus, more specifically, from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Their costumes and music had a distinct oriental flavour. The dance performed on the left seemed to portray either prenuptial or wedding traditions. The girl in red is introduced to a young man in a red vest who opens the red veil and gives the girl a gift.

 
Next was an all male dance by the same Cyprus folkloric group. It was about the skill of balancing glass goblets filled to the brim with water on men's heads. After the formal dance part was performed, the men stood in line one behind the other, with legs wide apart. One of them, having placed several goblets filled with water on his head, began to crawl on his belly between the dancer's legs. The objective was not to spill the water and not to drop any glass goblets the performer was balancing on his head. The audience was thrilled when this was successfully accomplished. 

The Northern Cyprus folkloric group had no problems of getting members of the audience to participate on the stage with them after their final impressive performance act.

The following pictures show the general ambience of the festival grounds.

An ally with boutiques and folkloric items.

Children's playground area.

Russian Matrioshka dolls..

First nations compound.

The Mondial des Cultures is a festival for those who are eager to discover many diverse cultures of the world in line with the official festival's mission to "Develop and hold an international cultural event which displays the facets of various traditions of the world in a festival for the whole family where a brotherhood and universal spirit of peace prevails."