As a serial entrepreneur (according to friends), I’ve had to take a deep breath and pour out enthusiasm for many a cause. It isn’t hard. You just have to believe what you’re saying is true. Conviction is highly contagious.

Asked to be an “official spokesperson” for the Festival St. Ambroise Fringe de Montréal, I found myself agreeing immediately. I like the Fringe. I’ve done it too. Summer of 1991, remember making phone calls with my head stuck in the fridge freezer for relief. But what does a spokesperson actually do?

Go onstage at the opening press conference, wax enthusiastically, then introduce Jeremy and Amy. Later, in the larger cabaret space at Café Campus, go onstage, ditto, introduce the hosts of the Fringe equivalent of speed dating before a crowd of . . . what? 200? Less obvious. Radio’s my medium.

Waiting for the hour to arrive, I bumped into Christine Gosselin, attaché to our fairly new Plateau Mont Royal mayor, Luc Ferrandez. She was there to check out the event and report back. Apparently the mayor’s office is inundated with requests for support from various arts groups and causes. Should the Fringe be helped? Or should it be kicked out of the borough? This apparently is an idea with legs, there being a file of complaints against the event from mild-mannered citizens who resent the mess and noise.

This is an issue a spokesperson can honestly and vividly address, so I did. The Fringe must survive and prosper, or else the Plateau will give in to gentrification and become just like every other yuppie haven in North America, an expensive, shopping-driven, nice quiet place to work and die. Notice I didn’t say live.

We are loath to mention the p-word in Quebec these days, far too bruised and exhausted by endless rounds of language wars. Now that everybody but shut-ins and temporary boyfriends are bilingual, nobody wants to talk about the great divide. Half bored/half afraid, we’re comfortable with the two solitudes thing, able to lap up whatever’s on the other side’s plate simply by standing in line for a ticket. Or not. There’s plenty of culture going on in English, far too much art and entertainment for any sane person to appreciate. Drowning in art, no way to touch bottom, take a stand.

The truth is that the 20-year-old Fringe is arguably Anglo Montreal’s most important and relevant cultural event. Why? Because it signifies, personifies and quietly (yes quietly) demonstrates precisely where the vital part of Anglo Montreal is at this time in history: falling all over itself to include, welcome and promote francophone talent. Not in order to be polite or good, but to survive. And not just a patter of French, but real gawky, funny, funky, francophones up there onstage doing their thing. The Fringe is run by a young staff whose blissfully fluid Quebecois accent is way better than their vocabulary and grip on grammar. So be it, this is success, integration. This is what our forefathers dreamed of, those idealists who wouldn’t or couldn’t or at least didn’t move to Toronto.

So why is the Fringe hanging by a thread?

Is it?

Christine Gosselin seems to think so. She’s in a position to know.

Call the mayor, I told the assembled crowd, in my designated capacity.

Email him, Christine corrected me later. Luc reads his emails. So this year’s Fringe spokesperson hereby hands the mic over to Rover readers. Drop our dear mayor a note in any language and tell him you want the Fringe to stay and thrive. He must do what he can to make that happen. luc.ferrandez@ville.montreal.qc.ca.

June 1 – 20. Watch the Rover for fringe coverage. Details on The Fringe site.

Tagged as: Fringe, Montreal events, Montreal festival, St-Ambroise