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.
After years of renovations, the city of Montreal throws open the doors to a revamped City Hall. Admire the building’s architecture and view new public works of art. Check out Human City, a permanent exhibit new to the space’s museum of municipal politics. Kids can cast votes at a polling station. And a classic music trio will perform in the Hall of Honour. Saturday, 10am to 4pm.
The Grand Prix du Canada has rolled into town for Formula 1 action! General admission tickets are still available for Friday and Saturday
It is the First “First Friday” of the season, with a super-sized food party under the banner of Destination Asia at Esplanade at Olympic Park. A variety of Asian cultural organizations have lent a hand in the cultural programming, including dance, music, workshops and panels, with tasty offerings from Vietnamese, Pinoy, Thai, Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian cuisines. Plus, the usual roster of food trucks will be there, with tacos, barbecue, paella and more. The fun will last all weekend, not just Friday evening: Friday, 4 to 11pm, noon to 11pm on Saturday and noon to 8pm on Sunday.
The Montreal Fringe Festival is in full swing, with live DIY theatre, dance and more from Montreal and all around the world. Short, affordable shows are held in venues scattered around the Plateau, and the Fringe Park at St Laurent and Rachel is a cool spot to grab a beer and see a free music show.
Some shows I’d like to see:
Montreal native Oren Safdie’s new work Beyond Ken Dryden, about how hockey kept him grounded growing up, Sunday 4:45pm.
Master storyteller Jon Bennett finally returns to the city with Ameri-can’t, Saturday, 1pm.
He will be followed by kooky local sketch troupe Tandem Jump Live, Saturday 2:45pm
Iris Bahr (Hacks, Curb Your Enthusiasm) performs true, near-death tales in Stories from the Brink, Saturday, 6:15pm
Musical storyteller Lou Laurence collabs with her date - you, the audience - in Love, Sharks & Frenching, Friday 10:15pm .
Former Montrealer and storyteller Al Lafrance says, Hey Buddy, Good to See You, Saturday 5pm and Sunday 11:15pm.
Ballet and tango get spliced together with the intriguing duo of Tango, It Takes Two, Friday, 8:30pm and Saturday, 3pm.
Two Aussies tell stories about touring in the Outback in Vehicle, Sunday, 3:30pm.
Storyteller Keith Sperry ponders about masculinity and the search for guidance in The List, Saturday 9:30pm
The 12th edition of Mural Festival celebrates urban and public art, with walking tours and block parties. Look for Pat Lacroix’s holographic hand, check out two Secret Walls challenges, Friday 5-11pm on the Milton stage, where artists go toe-to-toe working on blank canvases. And when the sun goes down: Mapplights projecting art onto murals by Buff Monster Friday, 9pm. Until June 16.
Active since 1910, the Expo Ormstown is a country fair favourite, with a rides, livestock exhibitions and agricultural displays, as well as a demotion derby and live music. Until Sunday.
The Montreal Steppers are collaborating with the young dancers of Centennial Park Steppers, performing along with musical acts Snowside and Roxanne. Sunday, 5pm at the Loyola Chapel in NDG.
Pointe-aux-Trembles marks its 350th anniversary as a town with PointeÔ, its first-ever circus and arts festival! La compagnie des autres will be holding free programming Friday to Sunday in Vieux Pointe-aux-Trembles.
Friday’s music picks: Gimme Gimme Disco will spin the best of the newly-knighted ABBA, Bee Gees, Donna Summer and Cher, at Fairmount Theatre, Friday 11pm. Rock band La Grand-Messe were once last-minute replacements for Les Cowboys Fringants, and they’ll perform a tribute tonight to the néo-trad rockers at Club Soda, 8pm. The show is a fundraiser for cancer research; Cowboys frontman Karl Tremblay passed away from prostate cancer last fall.
Saturday’s music picks: Dale! Pitbull returns to Montreal for a third visit this calendar year, playing the Podium Concert at Parc Jean-Drapeau, 5pm. Influential Latin group Aventura at Bell Centre, 8pm. Irish singer-songwriter Róisín Murphy at MTelus, 9pm. Francophone rapper Yuston XIII at Fairmount Theatre, with Greenwoodz, 7pm. Quebec rappers Souldia x Lost launch a new album, Portrait Robot, at Club Soda, 8pm.
Sunday’s music picks: Snoop Dogg, 7pm at Bell Centre. Pixies and Modest Mouse team up for the indie concert of your dream, 6:30pm. Archspire at Club Soda, 7pm.
Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour Kids brings the YouTube show about all the weird things kids become obsessed with, ilke trucks and excavators. Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Sunday 2pm.
Our own Rodney Ramsey (LOL Network, Just for Laughs Discovery Series) headlines The Comedy Nest with support from the likes of Carly Baker, DK Phan, Hadi Kubba, Walter Lyng and more! Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10:30pm.
Montreal Improv in St Henri hosts a medley of shows, including Improv Against Humanity, the deliciously subversive show based on the irreverent card game, Friday 8pm.
At burlesque headquarters The Wiggle Room, Pinot Noir hosts Moulin Rouge Burlesque, Friday 9pm, with dancers Ophelia Ross, Miami Minx, Petro and Mia Culpa. Host and owner Frenchy Jones hosts Classic Rock Burlesque, Saturday, 9pm, with Clara Develours, Holly Von Sin, Moonshine Sunshine and Enshantay. On Sunday, 7:30pm: variety bill The Lucy Show celebrates Sapphic artists with a Lesbian edition this Pride month. Lineup: Moonshine Smut, Sadie Molland, Mayhem, Juliette Danger, Phoenix Red, Ray Resvick and Shelby Thevenot.
ONGOING
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, the daylilies are starting to bloom, while the primroses and peonies are flowering and the rhododendrons are reaching the end of their blooms. Check out the other blooms of the week here.
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.
The McCord Stewart Museum’s excellent and informative Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience. The show profiles the 11 nations living within the borders of Quebec, with testimonies and carefully curated objects. Two of the McCord’s current shows include Becoming Montreal is about the depictions of the city in the 1800s, and Wampum: Beads of diplomacy, which displays over 40 wampum belts from different collections, underscoring their symbolism and history.
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.