Montreal the city of Festivals
Montreal, known worldwide for its cultural events and astounding number of festivals, is often dubbed: the city of festivals. Each year, the city hosts over 100 festivals and public events. In this day and age, thanks to the millenials’ penchant for outdoor celebrations, the international festival scene is growing rapidly, and Montreal is at the forefront of this movement.
Not many cities can say that they have a downtown plaza – Place des Festivals, located at the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles – dedicated to summer festivals!
August 15, 2018
Montreal is home to some of the best chef-owned market cuisine restaurants to be found anywhere. Au Pied du Cochon, Joe Beef and Liverpool House, Nora Gray, and Lawrence all provide a top-notch food and service. For a quintessential fine dining experience, try Toqué, Europea, La Chronique, or Maison Boulud.
August 15, 2018
Montreal offers a fine selection of cocktail bars and brasseries to guarantee a great night out whatever your preference. For cocktails, try the Atwater Cocktail Club, La Distillerie #1, Le Lab, or Jockey Bar. For microbrews, try Dieu du Ciel!, Brasserie Harricana, Helm Microbrasserie, or the granddaddy of them all, Le Cheval Blanc.
August 15, 2018
Playground, just minutes from downtown Montreal, is the top-ranked poker room in North America and features great cash game action around the clock plus a roster of over 70 daily tournaments per month. Home of the MILLIONS North America, the WPT Montreal and a new WSOP Circuit stop, Playground Poker Club is a “can’t miss” destination.
August 15, 2018
Montreal is home to some great nightlife and party spots, and with 18+ admission and late hours, the scene is constantly “on”. If your preference is an old school alternative dive with live music, try Les Foufs on Ste-Catherine near St-Laurent, while if EDM is more your scene, there are a ton of great choices like Datcha, New City Gas, Newspeak, and many more popups around the city.
More than a dozen film festivals are held every year, Fantasia and the Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF) being the most sought after.
Fantasia is a genre film festival. It started in 1996 as an Asian film festival, but later expanded to a very international repertoire. It featured many North American premieres, including Ringu and Quentin Tarentino’s Inglourious Basterds.
The MWFF exists since 1977, and is one of Canada’s oldest film festivals. It hosts many different competitions, including the well-known Grand Prix des Amériques.
films at Playground
The Montreal Fringe Festival hosts fringe theatre, repertory, dance, music, and drag-queen performances.
The Festival TransAmériques is a dance and theatre festival that hosts hundreds of shows and promotes interactions between the artists and the public through workshops and debates.
The Just for Laughs Festival, founded in 1983 as a 2-day French language event, is now the largest comedy festival in the world! It features in-hall comedy shows, street theatre, parades, comedy movie projections and TV shows.
The Montreal music scene is one the most prolific in the world. Montreal produces a wide variety of underground and mainstream music bands. It is only normal that it hosts so many international music festivals.
Electronic music lovers will enjoy Mutek and Île Soniq. ’77 Montreal will attract punk rockers, and Heavy Montreal will appeal to heavy metal fans.
Les Francos is a French music festival that celebrates the French language through music.
Osheaga is a huge 3-day music party held at Parc Jean-Drapeau where the biggest band names in the world come to perform.
The Montreal International Jazz Festival, or Jazz Fest, is a world-wide known music festival that attracts over 100,000 people on any given night and over 2 million visitors in its ensemble. It features over 450 outdoor and 200 indoor performances, held on over 20 stages, from temporary outdoor stages to small jazz clubs to the large halls of Place des Arts.
Playground, located minutes south of Downtown Montreal, is the premier destination for poker festivals.
Host of two WPT Events per year and a circuit stop of MILLIONS North America and the WSOP-C, Playground also provides a wide variety of cash games to choose from and everything a poker player can ask for:
free food, free drinks and world class dealers.