The oldest of all Acadian festivals! The Festival acadien de Clare has made it to its 53^rd year of existence.

The very first festival in Clare dating back to 1955 was not called the "Festival acadien". In order to commemorate the bicentennial of the Acadian Expulsion, the festival was then known as "The Regional Celebration of Saint Mary’s Bay Acadian Bicentennial". This celebration took place at Université Sainte-Anne from May 7th to the 10th. The major event was a pontifical mass celebrated by Mgr. Albert Leménager, the first bishop of the new Yarmouth diocese founded two years earlier in 1953.

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