Journées de la culture is like a massive cultural open house across the province, with workshops, performances and more. Check out the superhero and comic book drawing workshop, Friday, 7pm at the DDO library. Take a literary tour of Mile End at the Mordecai-Richler library. Kids can learn to create with paint and soap at the Pointe-aux-Trembles library. Take a dance class at Nyata Nyata dance studio on the Main. Musician-storyteller Patrick Therrien, performs an Indigenous tale for kids, Sunday at 2pm in the Villeray area. There are so many activities to check out, all over the city, so be sure to check the schedule! Until Sunday.
POP Montreal celebrates its 20th anniversary with a nearly-normal celebration of music and culture. While many of the headlining shows are sold out, there are smaller performances with tickets at a steal, sometimes $5. Ten-piece band Salin & The Infinite bring their soulful futuristic sound to a free show at Jardins Gamelin, Friday at 6pm. Lo-fi duo Home Body perform Saturday at 1:30pm at the Clubhouse Rialto. Icycle-rating pop singer Maryze performs Friday at 3pm. Check out the sonic collage Listen to Black women (again), until Sunday at Espace POP. And for the Kids Pop, a concert just for the little ones with Clerel, Geneviève Toupin and Jérôme Minière takes place Sunday, 2pm at the Rialto. The iconic Puces Pop artisan fair returns to Eglise Saint-Denis all weekend. POP continues until Sunday - schedule here.
Electronic dance music partay Ile Soniq is - yes - usually held in August, but an all-Canadian lineup is here to rock Parc Jean-Drapeau this weekend, with DeadMau5 with Testpilot on Friday, and Rezz and Deadhead headlining a dubstep-heavy Saturday, and Loud Luxury rounding out a stacked Sunday.
The 17th annual Montreal International Black Film Festival has kicked off, with online and in-person screenings. Kimberly Ann Surin's Against All Odds explores the tough road to success via one hockey player's story, online or at Cinema du Parc, 5:30pm Friday. Available online, the French comedy Holidays At All Cost finds family man Frederic trading odd jobs to ensure his wife and son can take a vacation, with hilarious results (and sly machinations on the part of his boss, who sets up the arrangement). You can also access on-demand conversations with this edition's honorees, including actress Taraji P. Henson and Lupin star Omar Sy. Until October 3.
We're on a boat! Or we will be, thanks to the Montreal In-Water Boat Show. Onboard visits, test cruises and as well as service kiosks await you... with a wide array of watercraft, from motorboats, electric boats, pontoons, to both cruiser and luxury yachts. Until Sunday.
The Montreal Science Centre reopened this week! Learn more about our evolution in Human, the moon in Water in the Universe and the process of invention in Fabrik - Creativity Factory. The 3D IMAX theatre is also open, with Superpower Dogs 3D delving into the work of rescue canines.
The Exchange is a free 20-minute, interdisciplinary performance taking place on the majestic Portico at the Centaur Theatre. Named for the building's past history as the Montreal Stock Exchange, the show introduces a band of travellers trying to reawaken a somnolent statue. Two shows daily, 5:30 and 7pm, Friday and Saturday, and September 30-October 2. Reserve your spot in advance!
And Centaur director Eda Holmes is making a splash directing Michel Marc Bouchard's French-language Embrasse, which just opened the season at Theatre du Nouveau monde. An aspiring fashion designer struggling to find his way out from the thumb of his seamstress mother, who gets into an altercation at their local mall. (And Yves St. Laurent himself is all mixed up in this tiny drama, too.) The stylish co-production will eventually come to Centaur in January.
Five budding playwrights aged 12-18 will have professional staged readings of their works at Park 'n Play. They are winners of the inaugural The-Write-Stuff contest. Infinitheatre stages the reading at Drolet-Rachel Park in the Plateau, Saturday, 2-5pm. (Congrats to winner, Elephant In The Room, by Sinead Chapdelaine of Westmount High)
And theatre company The Malicious Basement is presenting a radio play adaptation of Charlotte Gilman Perkins The Yellow Basement, streaming on YouTube, Saturday at 6pm.
And multidisciplinary artist Peter James tests audiences expectations with Exorcisme / Ré/Dam/Tion / Extatique, a six-hour show that you can watch an hour at a time... you have the option to take in 60 minutes, or stay for consecutive hours or leave and return for intermittent viewings. James invites other artists to join him on stage for an ongoing dialogue/conversation/interview. At LaChapelle Scènes Contemporains, 7pm to 1am, Friday and Saturday.
The Jardin botanique have brought back the popular, after-dusk Gardens of Light show after a one-year hiatus. First up, kids will love the Halloween-themed tour followed by an Ode to the Moon, an installation which allows you to 'howl' at the night sky (be warned: there is a lot of wailing.) The walking tour is different from past years, starting with the Japanese pavilion, through a spectacularly atmospheric First Nations garden, ending with the Chinese pavilion, where brand-new lanterns pay homage to Pangu, the world creator from Chinese mythology, who is accompanied by a slew of creatures. Entry has been timed since 2019 (since before it was cool!) allowing 500 visitors to enter every half-hour.
While you're in the area, the Îlots 76 play area near the Saputo stadium offers a series of sports-themed bouncy castles, including a small replica of the Big O. Let the kids tire themselves out while you sip a coffee; $9 gives you an hour of bouncy time, no reservations required. Open 10am to 6pm.
The Marché Asiatique de Montréal offers a magical spot to grab a bite to eat and unwind at the corner of St Laurent and René-Lévesque. An initiative by local merchants to boost the neighbourhood amid the pandemic and a rise in anti-Asian racism, the thoughtfully-arranged space (inspired by Asian and Buddhist design principles) houses two concentric circles, lined with vendors. Grab some noodles, barbecued octopus, fried chicken and some ice cream and chill out under the Tree of Wishes. Thursday to Sundays, until October.
The Biosphère on Ile Ste Helene has finally reopened, joining the Space of Life constellation that also includes the Biodome. With the recent "red alert" climate report from the UN, the Biosphère's mission is as urgent as ever: to educate Montrealers about the environment and how best to care for it.
Want to go to space, for a fraction of the cost and without any air sickness or g-force? The Phi Centre presents The Infinite at the Arsenal gallery in Griffintown. Would-be astronauts strap on virtual reality headsets, then walk into a cavernous room. But what your eyes see is a slightly smaller version of the International Space Station. Stepping aboard, you reach out to activate capsules that bring you elbow-to-elbow with actual astronauts, like Quebec's own David Saint-Jacques. In these 360-degree capsules, the space travellers explain how they work, eat and exercise 400 kilometres from home. Since it's the Phi Centre, the VR show is then complemented by two immersive art projects inspired by the themes at hand. It's a vivid, thrilling and educational adventure - no spacesuit required - brought to you by a collaboration with NASA, the ISS National Lab, Time Studios and Montreal outfit Felix & Paul Studios. Appropriate for ages 8 and up.
It was a hot week! Cool off at Below the Ice with Mario Cyr, a new immersive walk-through exhibit by Cirque Éloize. You will journey north to follow Cyr, a documentary filmmaker, to nearly inaccessible spots in the Canadian Arctic. Marvel at the polar bears and narwhals and walruses, and learn more about what a precarious position their environment is in. At the Éloize Studios In Old Montreal, at 417 Berri.