International film featuring French-speaking Mainers to premiere at ploye festival
The 23rd annual Ploye Festival will feature not only the world’s largest buckwheat pancake, but also the world premiere of an international film on the French language spoken in the United States that includes people from the St. John Valley.
The festival is slated for Thursday, June 22, through Sunday, June 25. The world premiere of the French film called “La Frontiere” will take place Saturday, June 24, at Riverside Park. It will be broadcast on public television in France afterward.
A French film institute created the film. Interviewers visited the Valley a couple of years ago to talk to and film some St. John Valley residents, said Amber Rankine, executive director of the Greater Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce. The chamber hosts the festival.
The language of French immigrants in the 17th and 18th centuries, Acadian French has diminished so that now only about 60 percent of households in Grand Isle, Madawaska, Frenchville and St. Agatha reported speaking French at home, according to 2019 census data. Efforts to bolster the language heritage have included school immersion programs and, most recently, a French spelling bee for high school students.
But the real star of the Ploye Festival is always the giant ploye. Made from buckwheat flour, ployes resemble crepes or thin pancakes and have long been a popular food staple among Acadians in northern Maine and neighboring New Brunswick. The annual festival draws people from The County, nearby Canada and other states to gather with friends and family and celebrate traditional French culture.
Ploye batter sizzles on a custom made 12 foot griddle at the 2022 Greater Fort Kent Area Chamber of Commerce Ploye Festival. Credit: Jessica Potila / St. John Valley Times
“I’ve spoken to so many people from out of town who are coming up just for this event,” said Amber Rankine, executive director of the Greater Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce. “We have a lot of people coming here for summer vacations and class reunions, and they like to set their trips up around Ploye Fest.”
Organizers moved the festival from August to June last year, which could have been risky but instead drew as many people as ever.
Historically, the festival had been held the same weekend as the Fort Kent International Muskie Derby and Madawaska’s Acadian Festival in August, Rankine said. The chamber wanted to promote tourism for all three events and decided to reposition Ploye Fest as a summer opener.
One of the biggest draws of the festival is the making of the giant ploye, also at Riverside Park.
Each year for more than two decades, Joe and Janice Bouchard of Bouchard Family Farms have selected a space to build a huge fire, assemble a custom-made 12-foot griddle and mix up gallons of water with their family’s popular ploye mix. After the colossal crepe is cooked, they break it up into pieces and serve it to the crowd.
Fort Kent is probably one of the only places to see such a large ploye made, Rankine said.
“The amount of work that the Bouchards put into that — it’s just fantastic,” she said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. People don’t get to see this huge ploye being made all over the world.”
There will also be live music, food vendors and a beer garden in the park that evening.
Other festival highlights include an always-popular cornhole tournament on opening day, local bands at Sami’s and at JD’s Tavern, and an Allagash craft fair on Saturday.
A family fun day on Sunday at the Fort Kent park will close out the festivities, featuring inflatables, games, face painting, a tattoo booth, music, food and treats.
For information and a full schedule of events, visit the chamber’s website or Ploye Fest on Facebook.
“The event is amazing, but so is the food, our people and the culture. Unless you’ve been here, you have no idea how really special it is,” Rankine said.