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At Tintemarre 2004...
Tintemarre is an Acadian festival which is held annually in Caraquet, New Brunswick, Canada. It is
considered one of the 10 major parades worldwide. On the last day of a weeklong festival about 20,000 Acadians fill a
street for a 5 block distance...dressed in the colors of the Acadian flag...and for one hour they make noise. While church
bells ring down hundreds of miles of Acadian coast, the sound of drums, accordians, banging pots and pans, sirens, noisemakers,
and airhorns is deafening. People in Caraquet walk the five blocks to the right and then circle around and head back
the opposite way. 2004 was the 400th Anniversary of the Acadians settling in the Atlantic provinces. That year 35,000 people
showed up! No crime, no drunkeness, no trouble of any kind. I'm proud to share the heritage of such noisy people.
I'm drumming (very fast) with a guy in his early 20's here (He is in front of me, off-camera).
His friends have dropped out from exhaustion. What I didn't know was that we were being televised for the 11:00 news. My life
really cracks me up sometimes.
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Above is a noise-making contraption on wheels! People build trains, boats,
cardboard buses, floats. I saw a child's wagon with an electric siren hooked up to a car battery! In the wagon was a toddler
with earplugs!
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A local woman asked me in a thick French accent, "Is this your first Tintamarre?"
I told her it was. She touched my arm and said, "It won't be your last."
Side-by-side these guys become the Acadian flag!
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The guy with no shirt was the one I did the 'speed drumming' with.
I bet I'm related to this guy.
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