We towards the end of Tani Diakite & The Malian Blues Band's set. I liked what I heard and was pleasantly surprised to find that Hanah Jon Taylor was standing in with them on flute and sax.
Wandering around, it became quite apparent that there was a paucity of things French. The miniature Eiffel Tower was a glaring exception. But, looking for French food, I was confronted with Glass Nickel Pizza, a couple stands with Thai food, Jamerica, and a Cajun joint. Wine, cheese, foie gras, and crepes were nowhere to be seen. While I certainly wasn't expecting every offering to be strictly French, I did expect there to be at least some French cuisine to be had. Maybe the pizza was made on French bread or baguettes – I dunno. I didn't even see any cake!
Regan, however, couldn't care-a-less as she danced around to the wonderful music.
Dogger bought a lemonade and shared it with her as he bought himself some dinner. He turned around only to find that she'd downed the whole thing. She also took to the jerk pork. Regan loves rice & beans so she ate well. This proved energizing as she found friends to dance with and with whom to explore the wonders of dirt and rocks.
Around 7 o'clock, the aforementioned Lataye came onstage. They were excellent!
Ooh la la!
In classic Madison tradition, the festival ignored the French and instead gave the weekend over to the cultures of former French colonies. I presume the organizers realize that the Bastille was stormed by white Europeans and that Jacques Marquette was a white European male. Does everyone really hate the French that much that they'd have a weekend to celebrate Bastille Day and ignore France? How about a stand giving some info on Marquette's search for the Mississippi? Or perhaps explaining Bastille Day? Maybe someone could teach folks a few French phrases? That way you could have a bunch of kids running around yelling "Oui!" Someone told me that Saturday was the "international" portion of the festival with Sunday being more traditionally French. Admittedly, I did not go on Sunday but, looking at the musical line-ups, it hardly comes across as being French. Instead, the focus was merely on another former French colony – Louisiana. To be sure, the Franco influence is strong down on the bayou, but New Orleans isn't Paris. Only in Madison can you have a Franco-festival sans France. I don't understand why the organizers seem to be repulsed by the thought of actually celebrating the culture of France. If you're going to ignore the French in favor of "a global perspective of French culture through the language of music", then at least change the name of the festival - La Fête de anciennes colonies françaises**, perhaps.
**The Babel Fish translation.
Or perhaps this was a way to look at how French language culture was absorbed by and or influenced other places/spaces?
ReplyDeleteThe idea of it being a French festival instead of a world celebration that looked at how French culture has become part of not only Wisconsin but Africa, the Carribean, etc. was a lack of imagination on the part of the people organizing. It's also perhaps a reflection of how we (as Americans) see things as either/or.
The food part does sound disappointing.
The D.