Weekend Plans | To mark the first weekend of August

Launch of Pride Montreal

The Montréal Pride Festival kicks off this week with colourful celebrations that will culminate in the famous parade on August 11. The 2024 edition features no fewer than 240 artists and over 130 events, most of which are free. Several performances will be held outdoors on the Olympic Esplanade, at the Tranquille Esplanade in the Quartier des Spectacles, through the Village and the Jardins Gamelin. Starting tomorrow, the Cabaret de la Fierté will be presented in the Salle du Monastère on Sainte-Catherine Street West until August 10. Not to be missed is the concert on Thursday, August 8, which will feature performers Marjo, Mitsou, Pierre Kwenders and Elisapie on stage. Also, the shows MajestiX And Drag Superstarswith extravagant queens such as Rita Baga, Gisèle Lullaby, Sasha Colby and Lady Boom Boom (Friday, August 9, at the esplanade of the Olympic Park).

The Montreal Pride festival will take place from 1^er as of August 11.

Luc Boulanger The Press

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Little Valley continues to sing

Passing through Gaspésie? You have a few days left to enjoy the Festival en chanson de Petite-Vallée. This weekend, music lovers will be able to hear Karkwa, Chloé Sainte-Marie, Viviane Audet and Sara Dufour. As usual, the event also gives pride of place to the next generation of musicians, thanks in particular to a series of brunch concerts. The 41^e The festival edition ends this Saturday.

Veronique LarocqueThe Press

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OM at the foot of Mount Royal

After breaking an attendance record in 2023, the Orchestre Métropolitain and its conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin are back at the foot of Mount Royal on August 6 for the presentation of a major outdoor concert. On the program: the Carmen Suite n^o 1 by Bizet, Citius, altius, forties! by Maxime Goulet, the Village dance by Claude Champagne, excerpts from the ballet Fancy Free by Leonard Bernstein and a Juba taken from the Symphony n^o 3 by African-American composer Florence Price. The piece de resistance, however, will be the Gaelic Symphony by Amy Beach, the very first American symphony composed by a woman. The entertainment will be provided by Pierre-Yves Lord. A surprise guest is also expected…

Tuesday, August 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Stephanie Morin, The Press

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Wretched to Montreal

As part of the Broadway Across Canada tour, Wretched will stop in Montreal for eight performances, at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Since the creation of the show by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, in its English version produced by Cameron Mackintosh in London in 1985, Wretched holds the record for “continuous operating time” for a musicalThe story is taken from the eponymous work by Victor Hugo, and takes place in France in the 19th century.^e century. It tells a timeless story of broken dreams, impossible love, sacrifice and redemption. With epic characters such as Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, Cosette and the Thénardier couple. Until August 4 inclusive, at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts, in Montreal. Note, the show is presented in English.

Luc Boulanger, The Press

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Calamine and Laurence Jalbert in concert in Laval

The 9^e edition of the Zones musicales de la Ville de Laval continues until August 25, with more than 40 shows by renowned and emerging artists presented in eight locations across the island. This Thursday, Calamine, Maritza and the Tribu Salsa Band will perform, then the following day, it will be the turn of Laurence Jalbert and Monica Freire. Florence K, Coral Egan and Ludovick Bourgeois are among the other artists who will take to the stage during the summer as part of the event.

The Press

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Please turn on your phone

Producer of the horror drama The hungryby Robin Aubert, CS Roy invites film buffs to an extraordinary experience that combines traditional genre cinema and augmented reality technologies. CS Roy’s first feature film, VFC stars Elisapie as a neuroscience researcher suffering from melophobia who seeks to escape the world overrun with music. At the Quebec Cinematheque on 1^erAugust 2 and 3. Each screening will be followed by a discussion with the director.

Manon Dumais, The Press

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Public indiscretions : theater in the parks

The 10^e edition of Public indiscretions runs until August 17. The event, presented in nine parks on the island of Montreal, has been produced since 2015 by the Théâtre du Ricochet. Its mission is to “democratize theatre and encourage civic reflection.” It begins Thursday at Parc Molson and continues on August 3 at Parc Beaudet, in the borough of Saint-Laurent. The event offers a free theatrical tour composed of seven short Quebec plays chosen from previous editions, with texts by authors Émilie Bélanger, Myriame Larose, Maxime Desjardins, Arianne Maynard-Turcotte, Dominic Laperrière-Marchessault and Danielle Thibault. The guest artist this summer is Rébecca Déraspe.

Luc Boulanger, The Press

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Victor and the Gift of Dreams at the Dame de Coeur Theater

The Théâtre de la Dame de Cœur, located in Upton, Montérégie, is presenting its large-scale show for the third (and final) summer Victor and the Gift of Dreams. The giant puppets that made the theater famous are used to tell the poetic story of a young boy who wants to succeed in life… a little too quickly. Between the advice of a careerist hamster and that of his magician grandmother, Victor will have to navigate to find the path that is his. The show is presented until August 24, from Wednesday to Sunday.

Stephanie Morin, The Press

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