Popular festivals have proven to be a very propitious field of observation for the study of the processes in constructing heritage value, as much from the institutional perspective as from the point of view of the community. Such festivals are also a subject of tension between a desire for appropriation, which reinforces the feeling of belonging and identification with a locality, and a desire for attraction, indeed seduction, with a view to bringing in visitors and promoting profitable local development. The Quebec Carnival, a popular urban winter festival, is particularly favourable ground for examining this tension between tourist event and local party, which assumes that various stakes are involved. Clearly, promoting tourism and creating heritage value are two acts in a single play performed through certain festivals, as seems to be the case with the Quebec Carnival.