St Pierre Jolys Sugaring Off Festival brings sweet treats to the Southeast

Southeastern francophone culture will be on full display this month along with a chance to roll snowy-sticky treats.

The St-Pierre-Jolys Museum’s 2026 Sugaring Off Festival, located at 432 Joubert St., is happening on April 11 to 12. The festival will mark its 35th anniversary of celebrating francophone culture and the arrival of spring.

Roland Gagne, president of the St-Pierre-Jolys Museum, said the festival is the museum’s main fundraising event to cover operations. But throughout the years, he’s seen it grow to showcase the Southeast’s French history.

“We brag about how the history of our area of De Salaberry, St Pierre, Rat River area, and how it was established by our ancestors, and then, after all the new immigrants from Quebec, northern United States and France and Belgium, these French speaking immigrants during that period of time,” he said.

Visitors can learn about the French La Vérendrye soldiers travelling through North America and the Metis communities tied to the fur trade, Gagne said. There will be traditional violin and dance performances and other live music throughout the festival. St Pierre native Michael Audette, three-time Manitoba Country Music Specialty Musician of the Year and three-time Manitoba Fiddle Champion, is among the performers. Horse rides are available around the museum grounds. Traditional foods such as pea soup and bannock will be served up for purchase.

Gagne pointed to the maple syrup harvesting and processing demonstration as one of the top events. He wants to encourage people to make their own maple syrup from trees on their properties. The museum hosted a maple tree tapping workshop on March 15, 17 and 19, in hopes of growing the amount of maple syrup produced in the region.

The museum has relied on maple syrup shipped from Quebec to supply both the Sugaring Off Festival and Festival du Voyageur because there isn’t enough harvested and produced in southeastern Manitoba.

“We never finish with enough volume. We’ll finish with maybe 25 to 30 gallons. And we use close to 200 gallons for our different festivals,” he said.

Gagne hopes to change that for future festivals by planting 50 maple trees per year on the museum grounds and by testing a new system that could boost production by nearly 40 percent. The new system connects a tube to each tree, bringing the sap directly to the evaporator by pump or gravity. The previous method relied on having buckets collecting the sap but required more effort and reduced the amout of trees that could be harvested at once.

The festival is volunteer-run, relying on roughly 240 people before, during and after the festival.

“Without the volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to put this up, and we wouldn’t be able to create the festival the way it is. That’s why we’re very fortunate to have them,” Gagne said.

Festival admission is free on the museum grounds. The traditional maple syrup taffy rolled in snow costs $3 per stick. Events kick off at 10 a.m. and run until 5 p.m. on both April 11 and 12. The museum offers no on-site parking and instead recommends visitors find parking in the community.

For more information, visit www.museestpierrejolys.ca/events-arch/sugaring-off-festival-2026/