New Brunswickers celebrate Acadian Day amid pandemic

Each year, New Brunswick’s Acadian community celebrates National Acadian Day on Aug. 15.

With the COVID-19 pandemic at large, it was apparent this year’s celebrations would look a little different.

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“Usually it’s a big celebration,” says Jonathan Poirier, communications director for Association Régionale de la Communauté Francophone de Saint-Jean.

ARCf hosted an outdoor event in Saint John to mark the occasion this year, where folks could enjoy live Acadian music from chalk-drawn social distancing bubbles, from their cars or from home via livestream.

“It’s about bringing the community together and celebrating being Acadian and being this awesome community that we are here in Saint John,” one attendee tells Global News.

Poirier says organizing this year’s celebration was more difficult than previous years, but also more important.

“It’s a very big logistics challenge,” he says, “but we really wanted to do it because New Brunswick has been doing very good and we’ve been doing the isolation very well and people respect social distancing and to reward our community for doing it well.”