Our friends at Montreal-Clubs have put together a little list of shows to be seen at the Jazz Fest, which by the way, is starting tonight, with what will be a huge performance by Stevie Wonder. Like every summer, the area around Place des Arts will be transform for about ten days into a giant outdoors concert venue.
Nothing beats Montreal’s Jazz Fest for spending a damp summer night outside, and dancing, all this for free. Obviously, it’s all paid by advertisements, and considering their main sponsor, GM, is bankrupt, that puts a pretty funny spin on the whole event. But anyways, that’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. The goal is to enjoy ourselves, so I recommend checking out the official web page of the festival, and hitting it as often as possible.
Here is a short video from Goran Bregovic’s amazing festival closing show a few years ago. It was just crazy.
St-Helene, the little island South of Montreal’s downtown is definitely no Jamaica. Yes, an obvious statement indeed; especially considering that St-Helene is in the middle of the St-Lawrence river, which is the furthest thing from the Caribbean Sea.
Well, that little detail isn’t preventing the organizers of the Montreal International Reggae Festival to import a little bit of Jamaica on St-Helene for three short days this coming week end.
For this year’s edition of the Reggae festival, the celebration is moving from the Old Port to Island St-Helene, a nice site for having shows and for spending the day outside in the sun in general.
The most interesting part of the festival, in my opinion, will be on the first day (Friday the 26th of June) with the Stur-Gav Sound System party. Apparently these guys have been together for a very long time, making music and performing following the sound system party tradition of Jamaica. Promises to be a good show; here is a little preview from over 20 years ago already:
The Montreal Fringe Fest is back in town with a hefty serving of over 75 plays/shows put up by a swarm of small, independent and semi-professional theater groups. Like every year, they invade le Parc Des Ameriques, on the corner of Rachel and St-Laurent, with a beer tent / ticket booth / postering paradise (see the video bellow). And like every year, the Fringe gives you the chance to see tons of theater plays for a very acceptable price. Consider the sad fact that a date watching a crappy movie at Scotia Cinema (the Cinema Formerly Know as Paramount) will set you back over a quarter of 100 $ bill, and that if you include popcorn and corn-starch filled Coke on top of the movie, you’ll be expected to fork over close to 35$. Now that makes the Fringe fest a much better alternative. And by bringing a date to the Fringe you’ll demonstrate your cultural and adventurous thinking, greatly increasing your chances of hitting the sack.
In retrospect, the serious truth is that, considering the amount of TV and movies people watch, we don’t go to theater nearly enough. I am aware that there are several reasons for this, mostly price, the relatively small number of plays, limited marketing and others. In my mind, the Fringe Fest is a perfect solution to some of these problems, and it’s the perfect way to get your fix of yearly theater.
So hit it.
PS: The Fringe Fest and I go a way back, in fact almost 10 years, when a bunch of friends an I volunteered at the festival with the goal of getting free beer and free shows. Our role was to guard the beer tent at night, a fun activity for teenagers that want to discover the deep secrets of Montreal’s summer nights. And a few years ago I also published a disgruntled article on the Fringe Fest because of a couple of crappy shows. But you know what, crappy can be good too, as long as it touches you in a significant way.
Quick reminder, for the fans of that drink I like to refer to as “la boisson des dieux” (translation “God’s drink”), the Montreal Beer Fest has started, and is in town until Sunday, at the Windsor Station, right next to the Bell Center. The Montreal Beer Fest is the perfect place to discover some small local breweries and quality foreign imports. And if that’s not enough for you, there is also all kinds of sausages, meats and other food products that go hand-in-hand with drinking a cool ale.
So take you mates by the hands, and drag them (if you have to) to the Beer Fest, I swear they won’t regret it.
Bellow is a small preview of what you can expect from one of the many promotional events that occur during Montreal’s Beer Fest.
