BAYSIDE, New Brunswick – Danielle Downing and her friends danced, sang, waved Acadian flags and reveled in the rain Saturday afternoon at the Canadian-sponsored commemoration of the first French settlement in North America.

The Acadians were among 2,500 people who spent five hours or more in the mist and rain at the Canadian Saint Croix Island International Historic Site Park on the New Brunswick side of the border and within view of the 6.5-acre St. Croix Island, where 79 French explorers and colonists spent the winter of 1604.

The settlement was the start, French descendants believe, of the French population in North America. Saturday’s rain did not affect the French “joie de vivre,” and the party continued despite the moisture and the cold.

Umbrellas and ponchos were provided by Parks Canada to every person who entered the site. They became the dress of the day. Many of the umbrellas sported the tricolor – red, white and blue – Acadian flag with the Star of Mary. People waved miniature and larger Acadian flags throughout the afternoon.

Crowds of 5,000 to 10,000 people did not materialize, probably because of the rain plaguing the area. An estimated 1 inch fell during the day Saturday.

“C’est la fierte de l’Acadie qui nous a amener ici [It’s our Acadian pride that brought us here],” said Downing, a native of New Brunswick’s Acadian Peninsula and a resident of Saint John. “C’est dans notre sang [It’s in our blood].”

Downing and 33 friends, all natives of the Acadian Peninsula, leased a bus to take them to the St. Croix River Island commemoration.

Downing and her friends danced to fiddle and accordion music coming from a large outdoor stage, where a dozen Acadian and French entertainers performed. It also was where officials of the Passamaquoddy, Micmac and Maliseet tribes and from the United States, Canada and France made speeches.

At one point, five huge white kites pulled by motorboats seemed to float by on the nearby St. Croix River. People where told of Indian oral history and the reaction of mainland Indians in 1604 to the arrival of “five huge white birds” on the river.

It was the arrival on June 26, 1604, of a French expedition led by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons and explorer Samuel de Champlain. The five-ship exploration team settled on St. Croix Island, creating the first European community north of Florida.

The settlement saw 35 of the 79 men die from malnutrition, scurvy or exposure that first winter on the island. The next summer, Dugua and Champlain moved the settlement to Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia.

“It is fitting that we are together here, at this place, at this time,” Paul Celluci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told the audience. “These events commemorate one of the first ongoing encounters between European and Native American cultures.”

Despite the clammy, cold afternoon, people remained at the site from before noon to after 6 p.m. Only heavy rains finally drove them away.

They were entertained by some of the best Acadian and French Canadian musical artists known to French culture.

They rose to their feet and cheered when Edith Butler, who is native to the Acadian Peninsula, appeared and sang about the French peasant who was imprisoned in London.

“Je suis fiere d’etre Acadienne [I’m proud to be Acadian],” she told her clapping and cheering audience in her signature deep voice. Her upbeat, moving music had people stomping their feet and joining in the singing.

It was much the same when Isabelle Roy, also of the Acadian Peninsula, took to the stage. Her more somber song told the story of Evangeline, the Acadian heroine who was separated from her lover in the Deportation of Acadians by the British from Nova Scotia in 1755.

“Evangeline,” she sang in French, “Your lover, Gabriele, is still alive somewhere.” Later he died in her arms, as he does in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline.”

While most of the music was traditional French and Acadian, organizers didn’t forget the young crowd with Canadian rock music and rap.

Still, it was a day for a people, the French and the Acadian, to celebrate themselves, their heritage and their culture. As part of that, they also heard music from the Passamaquoddy, Micmac and Maliseet First Nations, the saviors of the original settlers.

“Ces hommes audacieux n’auraient pu reussir dans leur entreprise sans l’aide de representants des premiers nations [These audacious men would not have succeeded in their enterprise were it not for the help of the people of the First Nations],” French President Jacques Chirac told the audience in a video shown Saturday. “En accueillant les premiers Francais, en leur permettant de suivre, ils on contribuer a faire des quatre siecles passe quatre siecle de decourvertes and d’echanges [By welcoming the first French men, by permitting them to survive, they contributed in making the last four centuries of discoveries and exchanges].”

Members of the First Nations at the celebration said they appreciated the recognition and respect for their people. They hoped it would continue beyond the celebration. Revelers also heard from Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord and Michel Cyr, president of the Canadian Acadian Society.

The weekend festivities at Calais and Bayside were the start of a 10-day celebration of the settlement that came and left during one year 400 years ago. The festivities continue until July 4.