Oh man, how to do I speak of my long love affair with Pop Montreal? This festival sprawls all over Montreal's independent arts scene with hundreds of shows in every possible venue across 5 days in the glorious Montreal fall. The antithesis and cure to all your Coachella-esque acid flashbacks, there is no trampled field crammed with 100 000 bros seeing their quotient of live shows and names to drop for the year, not here. You might get to see Ronnie Spector in a 300 person room tell the story of her life with a wrenching honesty and then sing her heart out just for you; you might get to see Patti Smith improvise with the wild (un)holy strings of Godspeed You Black Emperor in the echoing wooden cavern of the Ukrainian Federation (to name just two of the most memorable shows of my life that I got to see at past Pop Montreal's.) You will also definitely see about a hundred weird amazing sounds from local Montreal bands and brand new, incredible bands from around the world.
Not to mention: the best curated arts fairs every year, Puces Pop; awesome record sale; wicked film programming; installation art; and super smart creative talks at the Pop Symposium. There is huge beating heart in this young non-profit local arts juggernaut, and every year I can't wait to see what they do next. read more