LEWISTON — Saturday’s drenching rain may have shut down Smokey’s Carnival in Auburn, but it didn’t dampen Franco spirits across the Androscoggin River.

About 100 people of French Canadian ancestry gathered at the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston to hang onto and revive their culture.

Several people, mostly middle-aged and up, sat at tables talking in French or a mixture of French and English until 1 p.m. when a color guard marched in bearing flags to start the music portion of Festival FrancoFun.

Following the singing of national anthems, Rita Dube, the center’s director, introduced the Festival FrancoFun debut of Musique Tout Partout (Music All Around Us). They were the first of eight groups and singers to perform.

Composed of Mike Colbert on rhythm guitar, Jimmy Rollins on accordion and vocalists Isabelle Gagnon Lewis and Dolly Rollins, the Boothbay Harbor group performed spicy Cajun dance tunes and songs from the Maritime folk tradition.

Some of the tunes brought women to the dance floor to perform step-dancing in rows.

Dube said Musique Tout Partout is dedicated to keeping traditional Quebecois music and culture, which is what the center and festival is all about inside the former St. Mary’s Church.

“This community is very rich in French,” Dube said. “At least, still, 40 to 50 percent of our population is of Franco descent, so it’s important to celebrate that.”

Although it’s shortened every year because the Franco audience is diminishing, Dube said they still have a good-sized core of determined and loyal Franco-Americans who come each year.

The equally important parts of the festival are the food, the dancing, the music and the singing, she said.

“We do this every summer with the hopes that people remain loyal to their heritage, and we try to bring back some of French that’s dying out a little bit, and so it’s a fun time singing and dancing and having a great celebration,” Dube said.

She added, “It’s getting harder and harder to find French musicians, because the older ones are all dying off on us.”

First-time FrancoFun participant Pete Morin of Newry said he and his wife, Sandra Plourde, came to sell their sauce, Maudit Catch-Up Cayan. It’s based on an old family recipe and they make it for meat pies, meatloaf and anything made with beef or pork.

Morin, who shared early French Canadian history and stories with people, said they also came to see and learn how the French culture is in Lewiston. Plourde said they’re both from Fort Kent and are French Canadian.

“We need to keep holding onto our uniqueness, so we’ll never forget who we are,” Morin said. He drives a bus for the Appalachian Mountain Club in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. In the winter, he does snowshoe guiding, and he worked 20 years for the Canada Department of Fish and Game.

His grandfather, Thomas Morin, was a rum runner who worked on log drives on the St. John River and ran the ferry service.

“I was brought up French-speaking first,” Morin said. “And we were basically told not to speak French in school, because we were told it was un-American back then. So back in the ’60s, I did visit Mother Superior a few times and got my hands slapped for speaking French in school. But to this day, I still speak French.

“We might be losing our culture, but it comes out of the woodwork every now and then like this,” he said. “It’s good to know where you come from to know where you’re going and the young people should know this.”

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