Santa Claus makes a visit downtown on Saturday for his 66th Montreal parade... his cavalcade leaves Fort St on Ste Catherine at 11am, and winds its way east to St Urbain street. Over 20 floats are taking part, including that of the Star Fairy, who is played this year by singer Marie-Eve Janvier. Children’s entertainer Ari Cui Cui also joins the festivies.
As a music festival, M for Montreal is a very “industry” event, complete with workshops and networking. But there is an amazing performance component to it, with bands of different stripes performing all over town.
The documentary festival RIDM finishes this weekend, with screenings and events throughout. Check out Friday night’s Projet Archipel, which explores the past, present and future of the rivers and banks that shape the island of Montreal. Part documentary, part live show, it's described as: "an electro-acoustic concert given under an immersive sonic apparatus." I'm in!
Theatre
Up for some edgy French theatre? In Logique du pire features five actors explore the concept of 'the worst' through different monologues and skits (think anxiety, indifference, and overindulgence). The content is a bit graphic and it gets longwinded at the end, but there is some very funny and edgy material in here, including a scene where an cantaloupe stands in for someone's head and another where a young man ends up escorting Holocaust survivors around Montreal. In French with English surtitles at Theatre la Chapelle until Saturday.
Check out Prom Queen at the Segal, about the real-life fight of on Ontario teen who wanted to take his boyfriend to the prom.
Also at Centaur: Australian circus troupe Gravity & Other Myths opens their show A Simple Space on Friday night. This troupe (seven acrobats and one drummer) have performed to sellout crowds in Montreal before, so this might be a hot ticket. Until November 27. I saw them two years - and legit fell in love with these playful performers.
On the comedy scene: late-night regular Wendy Liebman headlines at the Comedy Nest and sharp Canadian comic Ivan Decker takes over Comedyworks.
The Salon de livre takes over Place Bonaventure until Monday with author readings, signings and many, many opportunities to pick up a great read. Quebec cartoonist Guy Delisle speaks Saturday about his travels to China and Israel – and how he developed his adventures into books. Note that most of the programming is in French and there is an entry free - $8 general admission, $6 for students and seniors.
Well, money can't buy me love, but it sure can buy you a ticket to the Wiggle Room's Beatlemania Burlesque Saturday night.! It's a hard's day night' of a show, with performers like Gigi Marx and Kitty Kin-Evil on the bill.
And Campbell's La Cantine pop-up starts today at 3547 St Laurent Boulevard (below Prince-Arthur). Enjoy (for free!) three soups and one mac and cheese dish developed by Chef Antonio Park (BFF of PK, chef at Westmount's Park and Lavanderia) for the canned goods company. Musicians With each social media share with the hashtags #Donation and #LeMondeEstSoupe , Campbell's donates a can of soup to Moisson Montreal. With this week's about the high use of food banks in Canada, that`s some tucking in for a good cause.