Montreal ramps up for festival season
Music, comedy, film and food take their turn in the spotlight this spring and summer
MONTREAL Festivals in Montreal are a lot like buses. It seems there’s one along every few minutes.
OK, maybe it just seems like that when there are roughly three dozens festivals between now and the fall, with the intensity ratcheting up during the busy — and tourist-driven — summer season.
There’s virtually a festival for every taste — music, theatre, arts, even food.
The crown jewels are the worldrenowned Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just For Laughs International Comedy Festival.
Both of the hugely popular events are into their third decade and stretch over weeks instead of the days that are offered by most events.
The jazz festival is already teasing some of the names that will be on this year’s roster, confirming that music legends Aretha Franklin and Wynton Marsalis will appear during the June 28-July 7 fest.
At Just For Laughs, activity is heating up as it prepares for its summer rollout.
While the earliest event, the French-language play Un homme, deux patrons, begins June 12, the slate of festival shows in English begins in earnest on July 10 with the popular Ethnic Show. The comedy onslaught of themed shows, free shows and galas continues until July 28.
Bruce Hills, the festival’s chief operating officer, says spreading out Just for Laughs came as a response to festival-goers who said they were overwhelmed by having the event crammed into 10 days. However, the bulk of the festival will still take place between July 13 and 28.
“We’ve seen a big bump in tickets by spreading it out, and if you’re a tourist and you just want to come for five days, the last week is the best choice,” said Hills.
Just For Laughs organizers have given the event a hard look in the last few years and rethought how it does everything from presenting shows to marketing to exploiting multimedia platforms.
Hills says that’s put it in its best shape ever.
He points out part of the revamp was making ticket prices more customer-friendly.
“You can come here and not have a lot of money and buy a passport or buy a handful of tickets to our fringey-type events and get out of a weekend for $50,” Hills said. Passports go for around $119. Hills said while the festival is primarily a standup comedy festival, it has featured a significant amount of musical comedy and theatre and targeted breakout stars who have attracted heavy attention from the large industry contingent that is present every year.
“It’s a cooler festival; it’s a more vital festival,” he said. For this year, the festival boss isn’t giving away too much before the official announcement of the lineup, although he allows that big names have been signed.
“We take the pulse of comedy around the world, primarily focus on North America and we put it in front of the fans,” Hills said. “We’ll be doing that again.”