Montréal High Lights

Night riders

Brussels, Paris, Rome and Montréal were the first to make an event out of staying up late, but only Montréal has the bravado—or is it sang-froid—to stage its event in the winter. Montréalers take to the night like ducks to water, plunging into “their nocturnal and terrible revels” (to quote Rimbaud) with the same ease as their feathered friends.

In fact, the MONTRÉAL HIGH LIGHTS Festival isn’t just serving up one night, but many spectacular nights. Nights illuminated with a brilliant array of colours and moods. Different worlds for dreamers, drifters, dancers and the just-plain-curious. Terrible revels? You be the judge! 

Old Montréal, new sensations

The epicentre of the 2009 All-Nighter is Montréal’s Old Port area. This year, a real funfair atmosphere prevails, with games of skill, fortune telling, the BMO Ferris wheel and BMO skating rink. Families won’t be left out in the cold either, with the Milk Family Fun Zone and giant ice slide!

The AXA GiveItYourMinimum Sphere is back too, for anyone yearning to hit the dance floor; while parched revellers can quench their thirst at the Bistro SAQ and SAQ Express. Art lovers, in turn, can slake their cultural cravings in the many Old Montréal art galleries that will stay open late for the occasion. And for the ultimate dousing, head for the new Scandinave les Bains Vieux-Montréal! 
 

Underground art

Art lovers, take note: for this year’s All-Nighter, art has gone ‘underground’ with a new event: 80 projects by 110 artists to light up your night through 3 km (1.85 mi.) of Montréal’s subterranean maze of corridors. Admire videos, performances and photographs in ten distinct art zones. 


As it does every year, the Belgo building—the local Mecca of contemporary art—beckons night-time revellers to ten galleries that pave the way to the unexpected. Performance, immersive environments, festive exhibitions—it all adds up to one big party. A few highlights: Jocelyn Michel’s surprising portraits of Québec actors at Galerie SAS; Studio 303’s Factory Project, a nod to Warhol and the related exhibition in 2008 at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts; and The Construction of Fear, a hair-raising piece by Spanish artist Antonio Muntadas at Galerie SBC.

The museums are in on the action too: Pointe-à-Callière tells tales of pirates, corsairs and buccaneers, while the MAC offers up Graffiti Éphémère—a chance to watch graffiti artists ‘tag’ the Maison du Festival de Jazz—as well as a retrospective on artist Claude Tousignant. Round off your art intake with two shows at Galerie MX: Illuminated Heart, artist Roger Katch’s neon pop art; and a tribute to artist Romero Britto, whose work incorporates cubist elements.

You shook me all night long

An all-nighter with no music is like a sundae without the cherry—unthinkable! Where to begin? Why, with the instrument common to all: the voice. At Église Unie Saint-Jean, vocal ensemble À Contre-Voix hits a high note with music from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Over at the St. James United Church, classical music buffs can enjoy a musical tour of five famous Parisian churches with The Organs of Paris.

She who says ‘music’ also says ‘shake your booty.’ Bust out and dance till dawn at Métropolis! Organized by Bande à part and Sirius Radio Satellite, and featuring Les Dales Hawerchuks, Vulgaires Machins and star DJ Ghislain Poirier, it’s sure to be one hot night. If Monsieur Pointu is more your style, swing your partner down to City Hall for a night of Québec’s best fiddlin’ folk tunes—and don’t forget your spoons! Or stay warm with hot Latin rhythms at the Centre culturel Simon Bolivar with a limb-loosening mix of charango and electronica!.

Dusk-to-dawn picture show

You know those old westerns, where “night” shots look suspiciously like daylight, shot through a lens filter…? MONTRÉAL HIGH LIGHTS offers film buffs a bright night of sensational screenings. As in previous years, the place of honour goes to the short film: short in length, perhaps, but long on intensity!



Once again, Place des Arts (PDA) dishes up Fantasia, an exciting international compilation of some of the best genre shorts (read: horror, suspense, sci-fi) at Théâtre Maisonneuve. On the PDA Esplanade, don’t miss Cinéparc, a ‘drive-in theatre-of-reality’ produced by imaginative collective In the City.

Be ahead of the game: get the Sundance sneak preview at Monument-National. Or, for those who like their cinema spine-tingling, the Cinémathèque québécoise is serving up three horror flicks by Spanish filmmaker Jesus Franco Manera. And rest assured that cinema never sleeps at the NFB CineRobotheque, which presents a cinematic selection as delirious as last year’s. Lovers, in turn, can get cozy at Cinéma L'Amour for the historic presentation L'Amour in the night! 

This is but a small taste of the All-Nighter’s nocturnal happenings. For the full program, click here.