Frye Festival, Day #7

I’ve been procrastinating writing this blog post because it just seems so final. The magical moments, the big ideas, the sore brain will all be over for another year.

Gabriel Robichaud did a fabulous job presenting the Poem flyé at the airport yesterday (soon to be posted on our website) to all his assembled subjects who are now “Deep Frye’d Frye Fans”. Les Paiens were absolutely amazing as usual (Susan Juby is busily working on a rap piece just in case she gets invited back to the Festival and has an opportunity to play with a band again…for many of the authors, performing at Frye Jam with a band is an inspiring first-time experience!). When Gabriel completed his poem, he relinquished his crown and tossed it into the audience. What is the significance of Sarah Donaldson, Frye Academy participant and first-prize winning short story writer in the Festival’s contest, catching the crown? Was this a set-up? I don’t think so. It was destiny!

We unveiled the plaque that will be placed on a building in Downtown Moncton (as we have done for the last 11 years, sometimes the Festival seems ephemeral, but the plaques are my constant reminder that we actually do have a Festival each year!), with a quotation by Atwood from The Blind Assassin:

In Paradise, there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It's loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward, along its twisted road.

I know that Margaret Atwood made it as far as Montreal since a big Festival supporter and Frye Fan (Bill Watson) personally escorted her to the departure gate in Montreal (I saw her to the departure gate in Moncton…we provide full service here at the Frye!). The Frye Fan stories are coming in fast and furious (thank you Facebook!) and I know that they will continue for a while yet. Thank you everyone for taking the time to write. It is so helpful to us to be able to plan next year’s Festival. I’m still waiting for the perfect connection to J.K. Rowling, so if you have any ideas on how we might entice her to participate in next year’s Festival, please let me know!

The authors have left, the epic poem has been delivered and the wrap party is over (well, at least I think it is…I left at 9:00 last night, but it looked like it was still going strong then!). I’ve even cleared my bedside table and started on the new pile of books for next year.

I hope that all the team members are sleeping. Danielle LeBlanc, Roxanne Richard, James Fogerty, Angele Cormier and the whole team were absolutely amazing throughout the Festival, despite their complete and utter lack of sleep. They should all be so proud of what they accomplished since all the events went off without a hitch. The biggest complaints we received had to do with our box office ticket sales and I’m sure that we will rectify that for next year.

Thank you for reading, for participating in the Festival, for volunteering and for all your support.

A deep Frye’d fan, back to the piles of laundry!

Dawn