St-Pierre-Jolys’ Frog Follies festival back for ‘jam-packed’ weekend | CBC News

A southern Manitoba village was hopping on Saturday thanks to the 53rd annual Frog Follies festival.

The four-day event is a familiar favourite for St-Pierre-Jolys locals, many of whom have been bringing their kids to the festival for the family fun for several years.

“It’s a great community event,” said stay-at-home mom Mariya Bouvier, who has been living in the francophone community for 13 years and regularly attends the festival with her family.

“The kids love it. They have tons of kids’ activities that they do.”

For festival president Roxanne Gagne, those activities make this year’s event one of the most “jam-packed” ever.

Reptile exhibits, a parade, a cake-eating contest, a powwow, a petting zoo, a corn-hole tournament, face painting, and musical acts are just some of the more than 50 festivities planned at Carillon Park and other venues in the village, which is about 50 km south of Winnipeg.

The highly anticipated annual frog jumping competition will take place Sunday.

“We have so much going on this weekend,” Gagne said. “It’s going to be so much fun.”

Gagne said the festival is all about bringing families and the community together — something she says should happen more often.

“When I was a child and I would come to the Frog Follies, it was always a family thing. We would come and it was the aunts, and the uncles, and all the cousins, and we’d be here the whole weekend spending time at our grandparents’,” Gagne said.

“That priority of community, that priority of family, has kind of fallen to the wayside right now, and so we’re trying to rebuild this feeling of community.”

The festival started in 1970 with a visit by the Royal family. In 2009, Frog Follies joined the St-Pierre Agricultural Society’s Ag Fair to create an even larger event, according to its website.

Anne Hildebrand, who brought her grandkids to the festival on Saturday, said she’s been attending the event since her own children were young.

“It teaches the togetherness of the community,” she said. “It also tells the people that there’s children out there that like to do things other than being at home, being on computers. There’s things to do.”

The festival runs Aug. 10 to 13.