“The diversity of the Canadian francophone community and population is really well represented in the program,” says Rivard. “It’s not only about representation of diversity in the line-up of the artists we present; it’s about diversity of the audience who come to our event.”

A Match D’impro (Improv Match) serves as the festival’s pre-opening event on June 11. Its fully Canadian musical line-up includes hip-hop artist Waahli, singer-songwriter Rosie Valland and language education-focused band Will & Seeka.

Building a Francophone community

In 1994, Rivard left his job in government relations at the B.C. Francophone Federation to join Le Centre as its director. At the time, the Federation was in the same building as Le Centre.

“I could not really understand why there was nothing going on at this part of the building called Le Centre,” he shares, noting its doors were closed to the public during the day. “When I moved here, I was missing that very vibrant arts and culture scene in French that I was enjoying so much in Montreal.”

Rivard’s goal was to transform Le Centre into an active cultural and community centre benefiting all Vancouverites. Having grown up in a small town in Quebec, he believes that a vibrant arts community can thrive even with a small French-speaking population.

“Because we were so far remote from any large urban centre, there were many festivals in my hometown,” he shares. “There was at least 35,000 people in Greater Vancouver who had French as a first language, which is exactly the population of my small hometown in Quebec.”

The director also turned his attention to rebranding Le Centre’s festival, now known as Festival d’été. These festivals involve both outdoor and indoor performances, usually held in the heart of a city in blocked off streets.

“When you live in Montreal, it’s impossible not to see [festivals] because the whole downtown is a festival zone for the whole summer,” Rivard recalls. “So, I thought, ‘let’s do our share, let’s do our part, let’s be a little bit more ambitious about it.’”

Investing in a Canadian identity

Le Centre then led a pilot project removing gates and security guards in front of beer gardens, allowing for an open alcohol consumption site. Rivard recalls how they served as “trailblazers” – paving the way for other festivals to do the same.

“I told the city, you know, in Quebec, it’s very normal to buy a beer or a glass of wine and just remain on the street and continue to watch the show,” he says. “And that was a revolution here.”

The director adds that Le Centre was also the first to organize a scaled-down festival in 2020. Despite these successes, they continue to face financial challenges. While planning for a return to large outdoor productions in 2022, Rivard’s team was shocked by increasing costs.

“We realized that compared to 2019, the cost of anything we were renting had increased by 40 to 50 per cent,” he explains.

In 2024, Le Centre decided to cease their large outdoor productions and move performances indoors. They plan to do the same this year with a focus on indoor festivities and smaller outdoor concerts supported by partner organizations.

While these changes have allowed the festival to continue, Rivard is concerned about tariffs’ impact on the province’s overall economy, potentially leading to lower ticket sales as people scale back personal spending. He advocates for continued government support of the arts sector, such as extending funding programs.

“The B.C. government had created a program called the B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund,” he adds. “At the last election, we kind of expected that the program would be renewed, and it was discontinued.”

Coming from Quebec, where the arts represented a distinct cultural identity, Rivard recognizes its value for national unity. He points out that in comparison to the auto or steel sectors, the arts sector requires less investment to generate jobs.

“Investing in the arts [is not] something that’s idle or something that’s not contributing to the economy; it’s the complete opposite,” he shares. “I think if we do that more, we will react differently as a nation when a threat comes.”

The demand is there for arts and culture programming; Le Centre has been seeing long wait lists for their programs and services. Rivard started noticing this trend around two years ago, adding that the majority of their audience do not have French as their first language.

“Our goal is to respond as much as we can to the demand that comes to us,” he shares, emphasizing Le Centre’s commitment to both diversity and inclusivity. “That’s why we exist, that’s why we’re here; we’re here to make a difference in people’s lives.”

For more information, see www.lecentreculturel.com