Quebec Summer Festival: Merchants rejoice

With great weather, crowded terraces, tons of spectators and artists who love Quebec City, the Festival d’Éte de Quebec (FEQ) is off to a great start in its return after a two-year absence.

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“An incredible record, atmosphere, people and stages all downtown […] This is crazy. We are very happy,” says Ozone Grande Alley manager Emile Lebel.

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Yet Jean-Frédéric Laberge, a regular at major events as co-owner of Dagobert for many years, was impressed by the departure of FEQ’s monster.

“After the shows, there are 50-60,000 people in the street, it’s fun, it’s great. We turned down 2500 people yesterday [samedi]. »

Across the street, Emmanuel Cote, co-owner of a restaurant called Faith à l’Os, admits that traffic for the first five days has exceeded his expectations.

“There’s the world, there’s the weather, there’s a great line-up, it’s pretty good at the moment”, he drew the balance sheet, thinking about the weather forecast for the next few days.

Busy Saint-Jean

Although the Festival d’été de Québec hasn’t made a rare appearance on Place d’Youville since 1988, the pedestrian rue Saint-Jean has been packed since last Wednesday.

Before the shows, the festival goers are huge and afterwards, the pubs and restaurant-bars are packed until closing time.

Olivier Ménard, a partner at Shaker restaurant and owner of the speakeasy-style Le Cohen bar, admitted that traders wondered if there would already be too much traffic during this year’s popular rue Saint-Jean festival.

“We don’t know if it’s going down, but there are a lot of people. On Saturday, after the show, it’s packed. We have a private bar upstairs. [Le Cohen] And the shaker at the bottom. We couldn’t add anyone anymore. »

Sound problem

Although the beginning was good, some negative points emerged. Several readers told us that the sound quality towards the stands left something to be desired from the start of the festival.

The problem was particularly noticeable at Luke Combs’ concert on Friday evening.

When asked about it Saturday, FEQ’s chief programmer, Louis Bellavens, said he hadn’t heard of it, but pointed out that with the changes made to the Plains site, especially in the new phase, adjustments would be necessary.

“There might be a sound hole in that corner. I will investigate. »

Another downside was the non-participation of artists performing at the Abraham Grounds and the late arrival of festival-goers from the Gold Front Stage area.

It is a situation that has been annoying many people for many years.

– in partnership with Cedric Belanger