Interview with Marcel Vézina About Galas

Marcel Vézina: Here’s how the galas worked: They’d ask a person who played, say, the fiddle, or whatever, for a song. The person would sign up and arrive, let’s say an hour early. If we started playing at 9 p.m., they’d arrive around 7:30 or 8 p.m. They’d sign up and then… 30 or 35 people might sign up for a single evening. Anyway, it took up a good part of the evening! There were different musicians, fiddlers, accordionists. I accompanied Mr. Doiron from Saint-Raphaël, who played the accordion. He was a very good accordionist. And Mr. Gérard Marois on the accordion, Francine [Desjardins]’s brother.