Quebec City Quebec - In 1927, the Canadian Folk Song and Handicraft Festival opened in Quebec City.
 
It was the first of the CPR Festivals, a series of music and folk arts events, held across the country until 1931 under the auspices of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP).
 
The festivals, organized by the railway's publicity agent, John Murray Gibbon, were one of the first attempts to acquaint Canada's many different musical communities and audiences with each other.
 
After the success of the first Quebec festival, CP announced a competition offering $3,000 in prize money for compositions based on French-Canadian folk songs.
 
Author unknown.