Summer has its classics. A quick tour of our photo archives allows you to revisit them. This week, the festivals which multiply during the beautiful days.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
The crowd was large in July 2007 for a parade organized on Boulevard De Maisonneuve as part of the 25e Just for Laughs festival. In addition to attracting the big names in comedy, the festival has distinguished itself over the years with an outdoor program that showcases street arts.
PHOTO ROBERT MAILLOUX, PRESS ARCHIVES
The Montreal International Jazz Festival, one of the largest of its kind in the world, has taken place every summer in Montreal since 1980. First held on Île Sainte-Hélène, then rue Saint-Denis in particular, the festival s settled near Place des Arts in 1989, the year this photo of the Saint-Luc Stage Band was taken.
PHOTO PIERRE CÔTÉ, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Over the years, the Jazz Festival has programmed great artists, including Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Dizzy Gillespie, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Oliver Jones, Diana Krall, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Youssou N’ Dour, João Gilberto, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder… and Ella Fitzgerald, pictured here in July 1983.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
In 2008, a legend turned all heads at the Jazz Festival: Leonard Cohen. The famous Montrealer offered three long concerts (nearly three hours) at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. “Leonard Cohen, with his golden voice, saying his poem A Thousand Kisses Deep on a background of synths, in front of 3000 spectators hanging on his lips. Moving, deep, luminous,” wrote journalist Alain de Repentigny in his report on the festival.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Of festivals, the metropolis does not have a monopoly. All of Quebec hosts a plethora of events during the summer. In Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, hot air balloons will be honored for the fortieth time this summer. In addition to balloons of all shapes and colors, this festival also offers concerts. In 2018, when this photo was taken, Hubert Lenoir and Les Trois Accords took the stage. The Cowboys Fringants and Bleu Jeans Bleu, among others, are on the program for the event, which will be held from August 11 to 20 this year.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
In Mauricie, the Saint-Tite Western Festival brings together hordes of cowboys at the end of summer. The village of 4,000 souls receives up to 600,000 festival-goers over ten days (the festival will take place from September 8 to 17 this year). The GA Boulet company organized a first rodeo in 1967 in Saint-Tite to promote its western boots. Nearly 6000 people were there for what is in a way the birth certificate of the festival, where our photographer went in 2012.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
In June 2018, singer Marjo was a hit at the Francos, despite spraining her ankle. “Marjo, queen of the Francos”, titled The Press the day after his performance. If her voice lacked a bit of tone at the start of the show, her legendary ardor seduced the thousands of festival-goers who had braved the rain to see her on stage.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Montreal festivals have finally returned to large crowds after a few summers disrupted by the pandemic. For their revival, they were undoubtedly able to count on a new generation of spectators. Judging by this photo taken at the Jazz Festival in 2018, some festival-goers also get into the habit of attending major summer cultural events from childhood.