LEWISTON – Five months after organizers said au revoir to Lewiston’s annual Festival de Joie, plans are in the works for a new festival to celebrate the city’s French heritage.

If all goes as planned, the first Festival Franco-Fun will be held from Aug. 3-6 at the Franco-American Heritage Center and the Colisee.

“It was important not to let the celebration of our heritage die,” said Rita Dube, executive director of the Franco center, which will produce the event. “No one wanted to see the Festival de Joie go.”

Festival Franco-Fun is likely to be smaller than the popular Festival de Joie, a three-day event that drew as many as 12,000 people. It was held most recently in Railroad Park, where it had up to four stages that allowed performances to be held simultaneously.

But many of the 150 volunteers were in their 70s, and they and their leaders were getting tired.

“They were burned out,” Dube said. “It was natural for the Franco Center to take over.”

Mayor Lionel Guay, who ran the Festival de Joie for most of its 13 years, said he was glad Dube and the others stepped forward.

“I can’t do it anymore,” he said. “But I am glad it’s going to continue.”

A new committee formed in November after the announcement that the Festival de Joie was done had first planned to begin a small festival, but it expanded as members considered putting popular performers on the schedule and the manager of the Colisee suggested that the city-owned arena take part.

Festival details, such as the entertainment schedule and food service, remain to be worked out. And the name Festival Franco-Fun is undergoing a copyright search to ensure that no one else is using it.