The Jèrriais Teaching Team and L’Office du Jèrriais, the brains behind the Fête, aim to “stimulate curiosity and interest in Jèrriais amongst a wider and more varied audience, attract new learners of all ages to Jèrriais, create a celebratory atmosphere surrounding Jèrriais and encourage positive attitudes towards the language and promote an image of Jèrriais as a living language with a contemporary relevance and dynamic future.”
The festival is a “celebration of Jersey’s native language” and is hoping to “raise the profile of Jèrriais and make the language more visible around the island” as well as “bring together people from across the local community.” Organisers hope the festival will become an annual event.
During the festival, they will be encouraging people to use Jèrriais phrases such as “j’allons” (we’re going/we go).
The “programme of quality events” during the week will include a Badlabecques (pictured) gig, a concert, dancing, a scavenger hunt, talks, story and poetry reading as well as a conversation with Cambridge University Professor Mari Jones.
Pictured: A Jèrriais translation of Michael Rosen’s classic children’s book, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ will be launched during the Fête.
The final event of the festival will be the launch of a Jèrriais translation of Michael Rosen’s classic children’s book, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ in conjunction with Jersey Festival of Words.