La Kermesse board selling commemorative buttons

BIDDEFORD — The 38^th annual La Kermesse Franco-Americaine Festival was canceled this year, but fans of the festival can still support it this year by purchasing a commemorative button.

La Kermesse celebrates the city’s French Canadian heritage with a four-day event in late June that features a parade, music, vendors and a block party as well as carnival rides and activities. The annual festival is woven into the fabric of the community, and this year, when physical distancing protocols caused organizers to cancel, it left a void in the city.

“To say I was depressed would be putting it mildly,” said La Kermesse Franco-Americaine Board President Jessica Quattrone.

La Kermesse has been part of her life for 34 years. In 1986, when she was nine-years-old, her father, Joe LeBlond, joined the festival board.

Quattrone recalls when she was 12, dressing up in a frog costume as Franquette, the festival’s mascot.

Franquette has been a mainstay of the festival, and every year an image of the frog graces the La Kermesse commemorative button. The buttons are sold at the festival each year featuring Franquette in a new design. 

The La Kermesse pin from 1983 features the frog mascot. Photo courtesy of Raymond Vire, former La Kermesse board member.

“A lot of people collect them,” said Quattrone.

This year, the button, designed by La Kermesse Franco-Americaine Board Vice-President Ray Gagne, features the smiling frog on a backdrop of the state of Maine, honoring not only the 38^th annual festival, but the 200 birthday of the state.

Nine hundred of the buttons were made this year, said Quattrone. And with no festival, the festival board has a lot of buttons on their hands. To help recoup some of the money paid for the buttons as well as a few deposits it couldn’t get back, the La Kermesse board is selling the buttons for $5. Quattrone said she can ship them to those out of town for an additional charge.

To purchase a La Kermesse button, go to the La Kermesse Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/lakermessefestival/  and send a private message.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at [email protected].