Bédéric’s story

The idea of giving the festival a face kept coming up again and again. When the COVID measures forced us to cancel the 2020 festival, work on this idea quietly continued behind the scenes. A drawing competition was launched, and illustrators were invited to create a character based on Jacques Diedenhoven’s satirical text “De Bidgang no Contern” from the year 1830. The text tells the story of pilgrims who, at that time, made their way to Contern to have their eyes healed by Saint Walburga. And that was the birth of Bédéric.

Andy Genen, the creator of Bédéric, was able to convince the jury with his character. Bédéric embodies the style of a 19th-century person, emphasized through his clothing and hairstyle. He wears sneakers—on the one hand because they’re more comfortable for walking, but also to create a link to modern times. His glasses are also significant, since he had made the pilgrimage to Contern specifically to have his poor eyesight blessed by Saint Walburga. His vision is weak because Bédéric, who works as a schoolteacher in a small village in Luxembourg, spends long nights drawing by candlelight, which has taken a toll on his eyes. Through the pilgrimage to Contern, he hopes to improve his vision with Saint Walburga’s holy light.

Since then, Bédéric has been appearing more and more often throughout the municipality of Contern, emphasizing that Contern is the “Village de la BD” (“Comic Book Village”). You can find Bédéric in many places around the town: on the book-sharing cabinets scattered throughout the community, on the “Contibus” where he accompanies passengers, or even as a life-sized statue in front of the church in Contern. He also pops up in various bookstores across the country, where his very first comic book can be found. In this story, readers dive into Bédéric’s time as well as today’s festival.

Especially during the festival, Bédéric can be seen everywhere—whether he’s eating fries, lounging in a deck chair, or displayed on banners spread throughout the village.

If you’re interested in the comic “De Bédéric. Ënnerwee op Conter”, you can buy it from the municipality of Contern or at bookstores across the country. It’s available in both Luxembourgish and French.

Andy Genen: “People sometimes come up to me and say they think Bédéric looks like me. That always surprises me all over again, because I personally don’t see it that way—and especially because it was never my intention when I created the character. I was simply focused on fulfilling the contest criteria as best as I could, and in the end, Bédéric just came out that way.
And ever since then, it’s been an indescribable feeling to suddenly see my character on every corner during the festival and to encounter him throughout the year in the ‘Comic Book Village’ of Contern—whether it’s on the book-sharing boxes, the Contibus, or of course, that wonderful statue in front of the church at the heart of the village.”