Wednesday 19 June 2013

Les FrancoFolies de Montreal, Montreal, PQ

Les FrancoFolies de Montreal is happening in Montreal from June 13 to 22.

Established in 1989, Les FrancoFolies de Montréal is a large annual music and performance festival held in downtown Montreal, featuring over 1,000 French-language performers from all over the world, as well as attracting over 500,000 visitors.

Many of the performances are free to the public and are held on various stages in and around the Place des Arts section of Montreal's "Centre-ville." Other performances are held at nearby theaters and require that tickets to be purchased to attend.

It focuses on popular music performed chiefly in the French language or by performers from Francophone countries. Musical styles such as rock, pop, chanson, hip-hop, rai, folk, punk, and many others are featured during the festival's nearly two-week run.

I don't speak French but I still enjoyed the acts.

Here's what I saw yesterday ...


These dancers were great ... it was like Stomp in rubber boots.  They danced at suppertime.


A part of Rue St-Catharine is closed off for the festival and you can walk around with a beer if you want ... my hotel is within this strip so my purse was searched everything I left the hotel.


After supper, I watched Oothèque in the Zone Ford ... they were good.  There was quite a crowd.


At 9pm, Kevin Parent played at the Espace Bell, a block away ... the crowd loved him and sang along to his songs.


The beer guys were popular!


Or you could buy a beer at one of the Francobars.


This was on one of the buildings.


This was the view from my hotel room at about 9:30ish.


The receptionist at my hotel said the music would be over at 11pm.  You can imagine my surprise when Pontuation, a good but really really loud band, started at 11pm right under my window and played 'til 11:50ish.  This was looking down at them from my room.


The view is quiet different first thing this morning.


At suppertime today, I watched these dancers.  They were quite lively and tapped danced with spoons, balls on string, drums, etc.


At 6pm, Mademoiselle Nineteen from Belgium was at the Espace Bell.


Here is the view from my room tonight at about 10pm.  Zachary Richard from Louisiana was playing at the Espace Bell (top left).


He sounded good and it would have been great to be in the crowd but I was watching Master Chef and was tired.  Instead I watched and listened from my room.


Canailles started at 11pm just below my window in the Zone Ford ... they sounded good and the crowd loved them!  This was looking down at them from my room.

2 comments:

Knit and Purl Mama said...

I've never been but it looks like fun.

Too bad we didn't get to meet up this trip, but let me know when you're in Montreal next, we'll definitely pre-arrange something. Pre-arranging is best, as life with 3 young kids can get busy!

Have a safe trip home.

Masshole Mommy said...

Oh wow, this sounds awesome. I wish they had something like that around here!