Quirky Quebec: a guide to the Canadian province in summer

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It’s 9am on a Saturday and I’m dancing along to the twangs of a local folk band on the edge of a main road. The tables of the roadside Les Bonyeuses cafe are packed with other festival‑goers, who clap along as they tuck into flaky croissants and pains au chocolat against a backdrop of emerald mountains. It feels like I’ve stepped straight into a film set.

By now I’ve got used to these impromptu, round-the-clock performances at Le Festif!, a four-day festival in the artsy town of Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, where concerts pop up in just about every location (and at every hour) you can think of.

The previous day, I’d watched a Japanese flautist hypnotise us in an underground art gallery, bopped along to a soulful guitarist in a local resident’s backyard and been mesmerised by a poet-rapper-pianist on a stage strung with disco balls. The next day, I find myself immersed in a dramatic string performance in an art museum as a dozen huge double basses stun us into silence.

This is all just the beginning, according to Clément Turgeon, director and founder of the festival. He says: “Last year, the local priest was even the MC one night. He was on stage at 2am introducing a heavy metal band.”