The Festival d'été, or Summer Festival (full French name: Festival d'été de Québec, full English name: Quebec City Summer Festival), has been taking place annually since 1968. It is organized by groups of businesspersons and artists of Quebec City in order to show the artistic, economic, and tourist potential of the region. The Festival lasts 11 days and takes place over the first week of July.
Total attendance for the 2007 edition is estimated at over one million festival-goers, making it Canada's largest outdoor performance.
The Festival presents hundreds of musical shows in various indoor and outdoor venues throughout the city. During the 1970s and 1980s, the festival specialized in musicians from the Francophonie and world music. Since 2000, the Festival has included artists from genres across the board, including rock music, punk, hip-hop, classical music, francophone music, and world music.
The three main outdoor arenas of the Festival are the Plains of Abraham, with the most important shows, due to its high capacity, the Parc de la francophonie, and the Place d'Youville. The primary indoor venues are l'Imperial and le Grand Théâtre de Québec, presenting classical music. Bars and nightclubs throughout the city complement the selection by offering jazz, world, and electronic music. There are several "arts de la rue", or street performers throughout. Finally, a site called the "Place de la famille" hosts animation and events for children.
The 2008 Festival included the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the City.
Read more about Quebec City Summer Festival: Headliners
Famous quotes containing the words city, summer and/or festival:
“What life is best?
Courts are but only superficial schools
To dandle fools:
The rural parts are turned into a den
Of savage men:
And where ‘s a city from all vice so free,
But may be termed the worst of all the three?”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“Two wooden tubs of blue hydrangeas stand at the foot of the stone steps.
The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.
The grackles crack their throats of bone in the smooth air.
Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.
Pardie! Summer is like a fat beast, sleepy in mildew....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)