Sound: Monique Provost and Picnic Blankets

sound: Nobody knows exactly how one of Montreal's signature cultural events got started, according to an ethnologist who has studied the festival and says it could be celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, according to National Observer. But while Monique Provost says there are several theories, she admits it's hard to know where the truth lies. Named for the drum beats that characterize its soundtrack, the bohemian gathering has become a must-visit for tourists as well as locals, who dance, play or lie on picnic blankets to the sound of dozens of beating drums. According to some who have spoken to Provost, the event began in 1979 when Don Hill, a now-deceased street musician, plastered signs around town looking for 100 people who played the djembe, a goblet-shaped West African hand drum, for a drum circle on Mount Royal. While Provost credits Hill, she notes that the mountain in the middle of Montreal had already been a site for intercultural drum exchanges before he arrived. What people are reading Canada wants to extend U.S. travel ban'Alberta didn't contain it' COVID-19 outbreak at oilsands camp has spread across the country Court overturns Ford government's decision to cancel partially built wind farm Hill's ensuing hundred drummers workshop drew curious crowds and formed the basis of the signature Montreal event, according to Provost, who wrote her doctoral thesis on the history of djembe in Quebec. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.