Sarah Deshaies produces the Andrew Carter Morning Show. Every Friday at 8:20am, she tells you about the big, quirky and off-the-beaten-path events happening in Montreal. Here is this week's list, with links for more information so you can get out and enjoy the city! Submit your event to sarah.deshaies@bellmedia.ca.
Lasso Montreal has looped in rising and established country acts for a two-day rodeo at Parc Jean-Drapeau: Dustin Lynch and Eric Church headline on Friday, followed by Brett Young and Sam Hunt on Saturday.
Browse through the work of talented tattoo artists at the 20th Salon de tatouage. Artists from all over Canada, the United States and the world will show off a variety of styles, including dotwork, realism and Japanese tebori. Art historian Jamie Jelinski will deliver two lectures, Saturday and Sunday, 3pm about the illicit history of tattooing in Montreal and Canada, including the arrest of an artist over 100 years on the Main. At the Grand Quai at the Old Port until Sunday.
The Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s 11th edition of Virée Classique takes on a Mediterranean flavour, with ticketed concerts and dozens of free activities. Try out musical yoga, Saturday at 11am. Check out the massive octobass at the Maison symphonique! Then, at 2pm: Armenian Melodies Under the Mediterraean Sea. Until Sunday.
Circus venue La Tohu kicks off the first of two Week-ends aérien. Tightrope walker Laurence Tremblay-Vu will perform eight ‘traversées’, walking above the grounds of the Cité des arts du cirque, and sometimes reaching as high up as 78 feet (23 metres). You can take in a circus workshop, see a circus movie screening at Cinéma Beaubien, or watch a Cabaret night, which will feature aerialists from Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize. Until Sunday.
The fourth Montreal Streetfood Festival offers up a range of culinary delights, including paella and takoyaki, butter chicken and churros. Entertainment like bouncy castles and DJ sets are also on the menu. At the Clock Tower in the Old Port until Sunday. Admission is $4, free for kids.
Under new organizers this year, Ribfest in the West Island returns with the classic smoked ribs and other barbecue treats, plus live music and activities for kids. Proceeds go to Big Brothers & Big Sisters, autism support group WIAIH and the West Island Black Community Association. Friday to Sunday at the Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School parking lot, 13800 Pierrefonds Blvd.
Friday’s music picks: William Michael Albert Broad aka glam punk’s Billy Idol at the Bell Centre, 8pm. Indie singer-songwriter Iron & Wine, MTelus at 8pm. Orbit Culture at Fairmount Theatre, 8pm.
Saturday’s music picks: The legendary Missy Elliott brings the Out Of This World Tour to the Bell Centre, 7pm, with star-studded support from Ciara, Busta Rhymes and Timbaland.
Sunday’s music picks: Hommage to Ginette Reno, Sunday at Joliette’s Amphitheatre de Fernand-Lindsay.
Final weekend at the International Balloon Festival in St Jean sur Richelieu, where the music is almost as big a draw as the balloons. Quebec’s Charlotte Cardin is Friday’s big draw, and the Queen of Pop Punk Avril Lavigne headlines Saturday. On Sunday, kooky rocker Loïc Lafrance and singer Ludovick Bourgeois performs his dad’s hits, paying homage to Patrick et les BB. And of course, hot air balloonists from all over the continent will be flying above - while food, drinks and animation for kids will keep your feet on the ground.
Luc Plamondon’s cyberpunk rock opera Starmania: L’Opéra Rock first debuted in 1979, launching the career of Diane Dufresne. Futuristic city Monopolis is the setting for several love stories, as well as the symbolic battle between terrorist rebels and a cruel totalitarianism. Johnny Rockfort, leader of the Black Star gang, falls for celebrity TV host Cristal. Until Sunday at Place Bell in Laval.
The 20th anniversary performance of French-language musical Don Juan has returned home! Gian Marco Schiaretti stars as the libidinous seducer out for love and adventure. Until August 24 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.
Pub Royal is an intimate circus show inspired by the music of legendary neotrad rock band Les Cowboys Fringants. This production by Les 7 Doigts de la main is back on until Saturday at Théâtre Maisonneuve.
Film Noir sur le Canal closes out its summer series with Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. A young refugee named Zero Mustapha gets a job as a bellboy at a pink concoction of a hotel, falling under the wing of concierge Mr Gustave, who has been entrusted with a valuable work of art. Film critic Justine Smith will open the evening with remarks, and the film will roll at 8:30pm. Sunday at Square Saint-Patrick along the Lachine Canal.
Steven Rogers (The Late Show, The Late Late Show) cracks wise about anxiety and more when he headlines at The Comedy Nest, with the support of comics like Isabelle Gaumont, Viveth K and Andrew Khoury. Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10:30pm.
At burlesque headquarters The Wiggle Room, owner Frenchy Jones hosts two soirees:
All that Jazz: An Evening of Burlesque and Jazz, Friday 9pm will feature Madrose, Yaya Havana, Jolie Lolita and Vita Devour. Saturday, 9pm is Heroes vs. Villains, with Yikes Macaroni, Lulu Les Belles Mirettes, Enshantay and Célesta O’Lee.
ONGOING EVENTS
Massive, summer-long ceramics event 1001 Pots continues this weekend! Browse a selection of works by ceramicists across the province, and check out art installations and demonstration. The Potters' Olympics competition takes place Saturday. At 2435 de l'Église in Val-David in the Laurentians, on weekends until August 18.
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’s latest show Saints, Sinners and Fools, a massive exhibit tracing three centuries of Flemish masterworks, including pieces by Rubens and van Dyck. You can also check out an exhibit on pop art and Japanese artist Hiroshige’s landscapes.
The McCord-Stewart Museum would also provide respite from the rainy weather: check out two new photography shows: a retrospective of the work of inventive, playful celebrity photo Norman Parkinson and Portraits and Fashion, a collection of iconic images captured by Quebec fashion photographers like Norman Jean Roy and Andréanne Gauthier.
Normand Brathwaite’s New Orleans Blues is a live concert in homage to the Crescent City’s famously musical French Quarter, anchored by immersive projections and a Cajun menu designed by Chef Paul Toussaint. Until September 1 at the Studio-Cabaret at Espace St Denis.
Cirque du soleil’s steampunk extravaganza Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities is back! Step into the Seeker’s wondrous, funny world, filled with contortionists and acrobats! Kurios is at the Big Top in Old Montreal until August 25.
Take a walk downtown to look out for 15 giant pink sculptures! Le Mignonisme is a series of sculptures known as Monsieur Rose, from the mind of artist Philippe Katerine. You’ll find them along an art walk downtown, including the Quartier des Spectacles and Place des Arts to the Esplanade PVM at Place Ville Marie and Phillips Square. Until September 29.
At the Botanical Gardens, look for the hardy hibiscus and black-eyed-susans, while the lilies are at the end of their blooms. Check out the other blooms of the week here. And check out Telling Our Story - The Territory, a photo and sound exhibit profiling the province’s 11 Indigenous communities at the First Nations Garden.
Nearby, the Montreal Planetarium’s new show imagines what human life could like on Mars.. in 2100! With help from NASA aerospace engineer Farah Alibay and celebrated troupe Cirque Éloize, ROUGE 2100 explores the environment of the red planet as well as what astronauts would need to survive. You’ll have the A-I bot Felicity 87, to take you through the immersive exhibit.
Pointe-À-Callière Museum has launched a first-in-Canada show, Olmecs and the Civilizations of the Gulf of Mexico Explore 4,000 years of Olmec history through nearly 300 objects, some of which will be seen for the first time by the public. What’s fascinating is that traces of the Olmecs were not really “discovered” until the 1800s. This show, a collaboration with Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, runs until September 15.
Explore the beauty and diversity of our natural world in Root for Nature. This new, 90-minute show is a “nature hike” indoors, conceived as a powerful piece of edutainment inspired by the COP15 biodiversity talks hosted by Montreal in late 2022. This collaboration between National Geographic and OASIS Immersive Studios will take place in the same location as the UN conference, at the Palais des congrès. Also at the venue: Dreaming of Asia is a stunning exploration of Chinese and Japanese culture, making its North American premiere at OASIS Immersions. French digital art studio Danny Rose has crafted four different experiences, including a look at shadow puppet theatre.
Visit the city’s newest museum: Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises promises to capture the metropois’ history and citizens. Check out the vintage neon signs at the entrance, and look for the colourful balls that once decorated Ste-Catherine in the Gay Village. There are two exhibitions up now: a lookback at the 90 years of Le Chaînon, the women’s shelter and resource centre, and Détours, which focuses on hidden corners of the city. Located at 1201 St Laurent.