LARRY’S RIVER – Five days of boats, ball hockey, Acadian food, music, language, dancing and community gatherings had barely wrapped up when Jennifer Delorey tendered her cheerfully official assessment of the 21st Festival Savalette.
“Fantastic,” the president of La Société Acadienne de Torbé told The Journal in an interview Monday, somehow sounding both exhausted and exhilarated. Best one yet? “Yes, for sure.”
The measure was not any single event, Delorey explained, but the way people turned out across the celebration in Larry’s River and Port Felix from Aug. 5 to 9. “The hall was full, yet the grounds were also full,” she said.
Saturday offered perhaps the clearest example. The artisan market filled the hall while youth activities occupied the grounds and a barbecue drew another crowd outside. Taken together, Delorey estimated about 400 people were on site.
“The excitement was palpable,” she said.
But the size of the crowd here to mark their pride in the Acadian language, culture and traditions of the Torbé region was only part of what impressed. As in past years, the festival drew people from beyond the immediate Torbé communities.
“We had representation from all across the county,” Delorey said, pointing to visitors from Boylston and beyond, including a guest speaker from Quebec.
Indeed, linguist Robert Vézina, a professor at the Université Laval who has been working on the development of the Torbé Acadian language dictionary and who attended both the market and the society’s annual honour roll ceremony, “was particularly touched” by what he saw, Delorey said.
The festival began Aug. 5 with youth ball hockey in Larry’s River before moving to Place Savalette in Port Felix for the opening ceremony and boat parade.
A reception featuring refreshments and Acadian food followed at St. Joseph’s Parish Hall, along with a workshop in la danse à claquette and an evening game of 45s.
Thursday put language and heritage at the center of the program. Langue de Chu nous focused on reclaiming and sharing the language of the Torbé region, while Vézina provided an update on work on the local Acadian dictionary. The day also included the society’s honour roll induction ceremony and a wine-and-cheese reception.
On Friday, Nicole Avery-Bell, principal of École Belle-Baie, presented findings from her research into language reclamation among Acadians in the Torbé region. Playwright Michael Pellerin joined her for a presentation drawing on personal stories and the preservation of local Acadian culture.
Youth ball, a noisemaker workshop, Mass at Église Saint-Pierre and an evening trivia competition rounded out the day.
Saturday brought the artisan market, a children’s Acadian carnival, barbecue, bingo and community supper before the tintamarre sent people into the streets with pots, pans, spoons, whistles and other noisemakers, hiking from Pellerin Road and Highway 316 across the car bridge to Église Saint-Pierre.
The Local Joes played an evening dance at the Communities Along the Bay Multi Use Facility. The festival concluded Sunday with a closing Mass, catered brunch and virtual duck race.
For Delorey, another measure of the weekend was the breadth of the society’s honour roll ceremony, which included representation from communities across the county.
Among those inducted into the society’s honour roll were Ann Marie Bagnall and Dave de Jongh, proprietors of Seawind Landing Country Inn in Charlos Cove (Larry’s River); Boylston native Kendall Doiron, whom Delorey described as an “up and coming female hockey phenom,” and the Fougère family – matriarch Geneva, her eight children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren – for their contributions to keeping local traditions alive.
Also inducted were sisters Cynthia Creamer and Celine Monroe of the Port Felix-Whitehead area, recognized for their tireless volunteerism and for their contribution to the resurgence of the Acadian culture in their area.
The Joe Ameune family was recognized for its historical contributions to hunting and trapping and its connection to Lundy’s traditional role as a stopping place for people travelling through the region. Delorey recalled that, when supplies arriving in Guysborough travelled onward to the Torbé region by horse and buggy, Lundy provided a place to stop along the way. “They had food and water for horses, and then they could make the trek all the way through,” she said.
Certainly, a sense of history was front and centre in the mind of Jude Avery, the Torbé region’s acknowledged historian and a celebrated cultural figure in his own right. Reflecting on the week’s activities, he called the 21st festival “our greatest success to date” and looked ahead to the society’s next chapter.
“It is with my heart in my throat that I congratulate you on an immense success in the presentation of our 21st edition of the Savalette Festival,” he wrote in an open letter at the event’s conclusion. “This was, in my opinion, our greatest success to date. Collectively, you form the best team in the world filled with enviable talents with an unparalleled sense of direction. In 2026, we turn the page. The Société acadienne de Torbé will take its own place in the provincial leadership. They will know us much more for our talents, determination and tenacity. From the bottom of my heart, a deep thank you to all of you.”
