en fete - what's it for?

[Gary Morgan]

I have lived in France for 2 years now and have picked up a lot of new words and phrases.  One that I keep hearing on the beginning and end of sentences is "en fete".  The conversation could literally be about anything.

Myself and my wife have no idea what this means, and it seems that people say it more as a force of habit than it actually meaning anything in particular.  I'm not sure whether this is a regional thing as we had never come across it before, however we were not far beyond beginner level when we moved there.

One of our English friends who is fluent in French has attempted to explain without success.  I'm sure someone can advise....

[Erwan]

I think you make a spelling mistake. It's En fait which means "Actually" "In fact".

You can often instead use En réalité

[stu harris]

I agree. En fête does have a meaning, in a special context. During the summer festivals, you may well hear Le village est en fête.