Summer Festival: Old Quebec City overflows with festival-goers

Yesterday Old Quebec was full of restaurants, bars and hotels in the Grand Alley overflowing with the big return of the Festival de État de Québec (FEQ), the economic engine of merchants.

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For me, FEQ is 15 to 20% of my annual sales. For just ten days, it’s intense, says Philippe Desrosier, owner of Brasserie Inox at Grande Allée.

Merchants met Newspaper Unanimously, nothing can beat the richness of Quebec’s number one cultural event.

“July is always affected by the summer festival. This is our biggest period of the year. It is good to see people again,” says Fabio Monti, co-owner of Ophelia Restaurant and Atelier.

“The Québec Festival contributes to the current traffic and is accompanied by very interesting summer predictions,” delights Alupa Clarke of the Association hôtelière de la region de Québec.

labor shortage

If customers are there with FEQ back, the main problem for most merchants remains the lack of labor.

Michel Doré, the owner of several hotels in the city center, admits that she could easily hire about 20 additional employees.

“There are evenings I can’t go 100% to. [de la capacité de réservation] Because I don’t have enough people to work. It’s the same in the restaurant, I would like to open 7 of 7. At the moment I open 5 evenings and 4 lunch times. »

Louis-Philippe Tremblay, general manager and co-owner of Taverne, decided to hire both offer to help during the busy two weeks of Festival d’été.

“I take everyone. There are some who have never worked in a restaurant in their life, but it is very funny. I give them a small section and the customers are there to enjoy and the employees too.”

Happy festival goers

On this first evening, festival-goers came from all over Quebec. Florence Brousseau and Sarah Maud Martin, 19, traveled from Gaspé to Quebec City to experience the atmosphere of FEQ, but also to see their idol, Luke Combs.

“We will be staying for five days. We love the country very much and he is one of our favorite singers. We take the opportunity to see Charlotte Cardin.”

For Jessica Luquell of Quebec and Jose Langevin of Saint Catherine de la Jacques Cartier, the evening was perfect for a mother-daughter outing.

“The weather is nice, we came by bus, parking is no problem. It’s cool, we missed the summer festival,” says the mother with her brother-in-law’s bracelet, who prefers rage against the machine.