There will be fireworks and food-trucks aplenty this week in Legal as the town once again holds its famous FÄ‚Ĺžte au Village celebration, which this year features an explosive tribute to a respected resident.
Legal residents will be out in force this Friday through Sunday to celebrate FÄ‚Ĺžte au Village. The annual event, now in its 53rd year, regularly draws thousands to the town to celebrate youth, heritage, and family fun.
Up to 3,000 people are expected to come out and take in the festivities, says Fred Malott, president of the festival’s organizing committee. While the FÄ‚Ĺžte is normally a two-day affair, the committee decided to extend it to three days this year to give people more time to take it in.
On tap is a full slate of about 35 activities that involve beef, clowns, trains, baseballs, ponies, reptiles, lasers, bouncy castles and beer (not necessarily all at the same time).
The party starts with a mini-parade down Main Street Friday at 6:30 p.m. followed by the Iron Chef challenge in Citadel Park.
The town started the Iron Chef event at the FÄ‚Ĺžte last year as part of the Communities ChooseWell initiative, which promotes healthy eating, says town community services co-ordinator Christine Young.
Teams of at least one adult and one youth will have this week to prepare their ingredients, all of which must be bought from the Legal Super Mart. On Friday, teams will have just 20 minutes to cook and assemble their creations before serving them to as many as 100 guests.
“Bacon seems to be the hot thing right now,” Young says, so the town has made bacon the secret ingredient in this year’s challenge. While the dishes themselves will be a surprise, each will have to somehow incorporate this salty meat.
Guests can spend $3 to taste-test the dishes and cast a vote, Young says. Whichever team gets the most votes wins $100.
Saturday boasts almost a full 24 hours of fun for FÄ‚Ĺžte-goers, including a pancake breakfast, a quarter carnival, a petting zoo, a soap-box derby, bingo and laser-tag games, and a performance by Oil City Sound Machine. There will also be a parade down Main Street with horses, floats and the Al Shamal Shriners with their tiny cars, Malott says.
Sunday features the demolition derby, where 30 drivers will roll their cars into a mud pit and bash each other to bits in search of a $600 grand prize, Malott says. It’s an extremely popular event that usually draws about 2,200 guests.
Sunday will also feature the FÄ‚Ĺžte’s first ever food truck rally, Malott says. Bully Food Truck Inc., The Patty Wagon, Keilan’s Creamery, and Go Nuts 4 Donuts will all be on hand to feed guests at the derby.
Saturday night features the FÄ‚Ĺžte’s fireworks show, held this year in memory of Roland St. Jean, the former town resident and fire chief who ran the show for about 30 years.
St. Jean ran a mechanic shop in Legal and did fireworks as a hobby, says Jenessa Beaton, his daughter and Legal’s new master of fireworks. When St. Jean was diagnosed with liver cancer last year, Beaton decided to get her fireworks license to take over the show.
St. Jean died last year. When he did, his family asked guests to donate toward this year’s fireworks show instead of sending flowers.
That’s effectively doubled the budget for this year’s show, which will be twice as long as a result, Beaton says.
Beaton says she’s not sure what this year’s show will be like yet – it’s the first one she’s done on her own, and she’s not sure what kinds of fireworks she has available. It’s also the first time that she and her team will be using an electronic firing board instead of manually setting off shots.
“It’s kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of thing.”
Beaton says she’s got some big shoes to fill in taking over from St. Jean, and says it will be tough to do the show from now on without him.
“I imagine there will be probably be some tears.”
Visit feteauvillage.wix.com/legal for the full schedule of events.
