Montréal cultural calendar

POP MUSIC

Some highlights of upcoming national and international tours:

July

High-energy boogie bluesman George Thorogood & the Destroyers at MTELUS (July 3); two-nighter with Boston alternative rock legends Pixies at MTELUS (July 8 and 9); hip hop legends Wu-Tang Clan at Place Bell (July 13); rap superstar Tyler, The Creator at Bell Centre (July 22); two-nighter with RnB pop superstar The Weeknd at Parc Jean-Drapeau (July 24 and 25); Canada-based Indian rapper Karan Aujla at the Bell Centre (July 26); Nigerian-American singer-songwriter Davido at Place Bell (July 27); and pop diva Katy Perry at Bell Centre (July 30).

Concerts of note: Montréal singer-songwriter JF Robitaille and his musical partner Lail Arad launch their new duo album Wild Moves with an LP launch concert at P’tit Ours in Mile End on July 20. 

The Arts Put on a Show at the Garden concert series take pace each Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Jardin botanique at Espace pour la vie from July 6 to August 24. Performers include legendary Montréal singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright on July 20.

August

Swedish punk rock band Satanic Surfers at Foufounes Électriques (August 5); two-nighter with American rockers Linkin Park at Bell Centre (August 5 and 6); Silversun Pickups at Théâtre Beanfield (August 13); Canadian singer-songwriter Tate McRae at Bell Centre (August 24); American punk rockers The Descendents with opening acts Buzzcocks and Mattstagraham at MTELUS (August 30); and arguably the most popular male singer in the world right now, pop-rock superstar Benson Boone at the Bell Centre (August 30). 

September

American singer-songwriter Jessie Murph (September 1) and Belgian-Morrocan singer-songwriter DYSTINCT (September 2) at MTELUS; English singer-songwriter Blanco White (September 3) and Australian indie-folk duo Amistat (September 4) at Théâtre Beanfield; electronic music duo Two Lanes at the Fairmount Theatre (September 5); two-nighter with Toronto indie-pop singer MICO at Le Studio TD (September 5 and 6); Canadian hardcore punk band Comeback Kid at Club Soda (September 7); American alternative metal band Deftones at Bell Centre (September 8); and a Lovers Rock reggae show with Wayne Wonder, Etana and Gyptian at the Olympia Theatre (September 8).

Moody English rock-pop icon Morrissey at Place Bell (September 10); The Waterboys at Théâtre Beanfield (September 10); English Celtic punk band The Pogues at MTELUS (September 12); Australian indie rock band Spacey Jane at Le Studio TD (September 14); British hard rockers The Darkness at Club Soda (September 14); French metalcore band LANDMVRKS (September 14),  American post-hardcore band Our Last Night (September 16), and legendary Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson’s Mandrake Project Live 2025 solo tour (September 18) at MTELUS.

Keith Urban (September 19) and Korn (September 20) at Bell Centre; Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd at Place Bell (September 20); two-nighter with English musician Steven Wilson at MTELUS (September 25 and 26); The Australian Pink Floyd Show at Place Bell (September 26); New Orleans hip hop duo $uicideboy$ (September 26) and Grammy-winning New Zealand pop star Lorde (September 27) at Bell Centre; and the iconic Sex Pistols (Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock) featuring Frank Carter at MTELUS (September 30). 

Concert of note: Québec rock icon Michel Pagliaro headlines the Rialto Theatre on September 24 at the POP Montreal International Music Festival.

Looking ahead: Canadian pop superstar Shawn Mendes headlines the Bell Centre on October 1. Montréalers adore Mendes: at his last Montréal concert, a visibly blown-away Mendes said onstage, “This is by far the loudest crowd in my life!”

Local soul, jazz and hip hop

For those looking for dinner and a show under one roof, the city’s top soul and RnB musicians headline Le Balcon music hall and restaurant year-round. Regular headliners include Montréal music legends Freddie James, Kim Richardson, Dawn Tyler Watson, and Michelle Sweeney who headlines her Soul Motown Disco Night on July 5 and 26, and on August 16. Le Balcon also presents their annual outdoor SoulFest Montréal at the Square Saint-James (July 10 to 13).

Montréal’s premiere musicians and entertainers also headline live-music nightclubs Diese Onze and Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill, both ranked by DownBeat magazine as two of the top jazz nightclubs on the planet. Montréal’s top jazz, soul and blues divas headline both venues which also have dinner menus.

Le Cypher X organizes the city’s premiere hip hop concerts every Thursday at O Patro Vys while GrowveMTL presents jams featuring the city’s top musicians playing everything from disco to hip hop each Wednesday at Turbo Haüs.

Hillbilly Night each Monday at the legendary Wheel Club in NDG is the longest-running open mic night in Montréal. The live-music venue presents all genres, including the legendary Steve Rowe Milestone Birthday Blues Bash with special guests on July 13.

CITY OF FESTIVALS

Montréal hosts dozens of festivals each spring and summer. Some star-studded highlights:

The 45th edition of the famed Festival International de Jazz de Montréal runs June 26 to July 5. Click here for full program. 

This year’s edition of Montreal Comiccon runs from July 4 to 6. All-star guests include iconic Montrealer William Shatner. Click here for festival programming.

The MONTRÉAL COMPLÈTEMENT CiRQUE festival runs July 3 to 13. Click here for more Montréal circus info.

Multi-cultural Montréal is a hotbed of world music year-round, but goes into musical overdrive during the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique. This year’s 39th edition runs from July 8 to 20. Headliners include Nigerian superstars Femi Kuti & The Positive Force who perform a free July 18 outdoor concert on the Parterre du Quartier des spectacles. Click here for programming info.

Some of the biggest names in entertainment will headline the 43rd edition of Just For Laughs Montréal, the largest comedy festival in the world, which runs from July 16 to 27 at various venues. Click here programming round-up.

Bringing together the genre film mainstays of horror, fantasy and sci-fi, the Fantasia International Film Festival runs July 17 to August 3 at various venues.

The Osheaga music festival takes over Parc Jean-Drapeau from August 1 to 3. Headliners include The Killers, Olivia Rodrigo and Tyler, The Creator.

The first edition of the Montréal RISE Reggae Festival takes place in the Peel Basin from August 8 to 10. Headliners include soca icon Alison Hinds, reggae legend Gramps Morgan and dancehall star DeMarco. Click here for full programming.

A who’s who of electronic music and DJs will pack the leafy dancefloor at Parc Jean-Drapeau during ÎLESONIQ Montréal on August 9 and 10.

The Fierté Montréal Festival Pride parade runs along René-Levesque Boulevard from Metcalfe to Atataken streets on Sunday, August 10, beginning at 1 p.m. This year’s theme is “Blossom here, now!” and observe the minute of silence at 2:30 p.m. to honour those lost to anti-LGBTQ+ violence and HIV/AIDS. The festival also presents their popular Mundo Disko dance concert on their Loto-Québec Stage on the Esplanade Tranquille at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Clark streets in the Quartier des spectacles on August 2. Click here for a festival primer.

Country music festival LASSO Montréal welcomes headliners Bailey Zimmerman, Jelly Roll, Sheryl Crow, Shaboozey, Tucker Wetmore and Riley Green to Parc Jean-Drapeau on August 15 and 16.

Marking its 26th year as an international trend-spotter of cutting-edge electronic music and digital arts, MUTEK runs from August 19 to 24.

The POP Montreal International Music Festival runs from September 24 to 28. Headliners include Québec rock icon Michel Pagliaro who headlines the Rialto Theatre on September 24.

Piknic Électronik presents DJs and electronic music each Sunday at Parc Jean-Drapeau until October 12. Superstar DJs spinning include Misstress Barbara (August 31) and Carl Cox (October 3). Click here for a Piknic Électronik primer.

Click here for your full summer Montréal festival guide.

THEATRE

Each summer some 13,000 theatre lovers gather in parks in and around Montréal to delight in the language of the Bard and the magic of live theatre. Repercussion Theatre’s Shakespeare-in-the-Park 2025 summer tour with Persephone productions presents Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, directed and adapted by Rebecca Gibian and Adam Capriolo. Runs July 24 to August 17. Click here for the full schedule at a park near you.

Evenko and Broadway Across Canada present HAMILTON, the epic saga that follows the rise of U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Presented at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier from August 19 to September 7.

Click here for more English theatre in Montréal.

Over at La TOHU, the Off-Broadway smash Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors makes its French-language world premiere as Dracula, une comédie des horreurs from September 11 to 26.  

DANCE

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens presents two free outdoor performances of Les Quatre Tempéraments et Désir – Les Quatre Tempéraments by George Balanchine, and Désir by James Kudelka – at the Théâtre de Verdure in Parc La Fontaine on August 23 and 24 beginning at 8:30 p.m. nightly. Free admission with ticket that must be reserved online beginning August 9 at noon. Click here for August 23 concert, and here for August 24. 

Then the 2025-2026 Les Grands Ballets Canadiens season begins with Bella Figura at Théatre Maisonneuve from September 11 to 20.

CLASSICAL STAGE

Under the artistic direction of Maestro Rafael Payare, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal presents the 12th edition of the Virée classique OSM which offers up summer concerts and more than 60 free activities for the whole family from August 13 to 17. The Virée classique’s traditional opening concert is the free outdoor Grand Concert on the Esplanade of the Olympic Park on August 13 at 7:30 p.m. Directed by Payare and hosted by André Robitaille, the 65-minute concert will highlight the 150th birthday of composer Mikis Theodorakis.

Click here for all Virée classique programming.

The Orchestre Métropolitain presents the hotly-anticipated Beck with Orchestre Métropolitain at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on July 16. 

Then the OM presents the 10th edition of their signature free outdoor summer concert The OM at the Foot of Mount Royal on July 30 at 7:30 p.m. on Fletcher’s Field at the foot of Mount Royal. Conducted by Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the pièce de résistance of the evening’s program is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 “Italian”.

Not to be outdone, the Orchestre Classique de Montréal presents their inaugural Classical Day at the Oratory, a one-day festival at the historic Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal, on July 5 beginning at 10 a.m. The festival includes seven free 30-minute concerts and one paid one-hour concert with no intermission. Click here for full programming info.

The 15th season of Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts begins in September and features some 90 concerts, with half of its programming showcasing Québec and Canadian artists. Click here for the full program.

MUSEUMS

The immersive and interactive exhibition Knights at the Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex in Old Montréal explores the lives of knights during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, from the battlefield to the royal court. Some 250 pieces on display – an impressive selection of European weaponry and armour from the prestigious collection of the Museo Stibbert in Italy – illustrate the historical and cultural richness of the world of knights. Runs to October 19.

Canada’s largest indoor immersive attraction, OASIS immersion at the Palais des congrès de Montréal presents the 90-minute exhibition Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience narrated by musician and actor Kevin Bacon. The immersive show features more than 1,000 iconic photographs and floor-to-ceiling live video performances of some of music’s most legendary acts like The Who, The Beatles, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Chappell Roan, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, Green Day, Sinead O’Connor, David Bowie, Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg, Radiohead, The Doors, Aretha Franklin, KISS, Joan Jett, The Ramones, Lizzo and more. Runs to August 31.

Click here for more Montréal museum exhibitions.

FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT

Children of all ages can discover new worlds at Montréal Espace pour la vie, the largest natural-sciences museum complex in Canada which comprises the Jardin botanique, Planetarium, Biosphere, famed Biodôme and Insectarium. Purchasing fixed-time tickets online is highly recommended. 

The cult crime-film festival Film Noir au Canal screens classic films noir over six Sunday nights in the summer, from July 13 to August 17, at Square Saint-Patrick on the banks of the Lachine Canal. Screenings begin at dusk. Their 9th edition kicks off on July 13 with a screening of The Third Man. Free admission. In case of rain, the screening will be postponed to July 14. Films in the Film Noir au Canal program are revealed weekly. Click here for more info.

The Montreal Cinéclub Film Society screens classic movies at various venues every second week. Click here for the full program.

The IMAX cinema at the Montréal Science Centre screens films for all ages, including T-Rex 3D: Greatest of all Tyrants.

LITERATURE

The Violet Hour queer literary series presents the Montréal launch of legendary playwright and author Sky Gilbert’s new novel The Blue House (Cormorant Books), July 24 at 7 p.m. at Stock Bar in The Village. Sky will read from his novel, and there will be a special performance by internationally-acclaimed cellist Stéphane Tétreault. 

Violet Hour then presents Love and Sex as Resistance: Writing Queer Romance and Erotica, a panel discussion on the importance of queer romance and sex in literature, with panelists Gabriel Cholette, Leila Marshy and Jane Walsh. Hosted by Afrooz Zaad. At Librairie Pulp Books & Café on July 28 beginning at 7 p.m.

Lectures LOGOS Readings is a series of monthly multicultural readings hosted by award-winning author H. Nigel Thomas and renowned human rights advocate Maguy Métellus at the UNIA Hall in Little Burgundy.

DRAG SHOWS

Montréal drag superstar Rita Baga hosts Le Rita Baga Supperclub au Caf’Conc’with a variety of all-star guests, at the iconic Caf’Conc’ (short for Café Concert) located at the Montréal Marriott Chateau Champlain Hotel, on July 3-17-31.

The Maison du Parc AIDS Hospice annual charity drag show Oh La La! features headliner Manny, co-hosts Tracy Trash and Plastik Patrick, and special guest performers Ruby Doll, CC_Chanellll and Miami Minx, at Cabaret Mado on July 9 beginning at 7 p.m. 

Bitchfest de Mona de Grenoble at Le Studio TD on July 18. Looking ahead, Mona de Grenoble – who walked away with the Olivier de l’année, the most coveted prize at the 2025 Olivier Gala – also presents her show De la poudre aux yeux at the Studio-Cabaret at Espace St-Denis on October 18.

Sami Landri pis ses funny ladies at Le Studio TD on July 19.

Drag stars Mona de Grenoble and Rainbow co-host their Entre 2 Lèvres talk-show podcast with fabulous guests, one night only, July 29 at the Olympia Theatre. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race S17 showstopper and runner-up Jewels Sparkles at Cabaret Mado on July 31 (shows at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

The Fierté Montréal Festival presents their Soirée 100% Drag, the world’s largest free drag show, on the TD Stage on the Olympic Park Esplanade on August 7. Hosted by Barbada and Rita Baga, the mega-show features local drag royalty alongside drag stars from various RuPaul’s Drag Race franchises.

The hilarious all-drag-cast touring production The Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue returns to Théâtre St-Denis with an all-new show: 2025 finds Sophia out on bail after being busted by the DEA for running a drug ring at Shady Pines. Blanche and Rose have founded CreakN, a thriving sex app for seniors. And Dorothy is trying to hold it all together, with help from her much younger, sex-crazed love interest. For ages 18+. Two shows only, September 25 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Montréal is one of the drag capitals of the world. Located in The Village, drag icon Mado Lamotte’s Cabaret Mado and Michel Dorion’s classic Bar Le Cocktail both book the best drag performers in the city nightly. Both venues are also two of the most popular nightclubs in The Village.

COMEDY

Montréal’s local comedy scene is enjoying a renaissance with flourishing comedy nights in clubs throughout the city, and touring national and international comedians selling out large venues.

Some of the biggest names in entertainment will headline the 43rd edition of Just For Laughs Montréal, the largest comedy festival in the world, which runs from July 16 to 27 at various venues. Hosts of the all-star Just For Laughs gala shows at Théatre Maisonneuve are Roy Wood Jr. (July 25 at 6:30 p.m.), Michelle Buteau (July 25 at 9:30 p.m.), Fortune Feimster (July 26 at 6:30 p.m.) and Mikey Day (July 26 at 9:30 p.m.). Click here for programming info.

The third edition of the local Montreal Comedy Festival runs at various venues from July 1 to 31.

American comedian Jim Norton headlines Théâtre Beanfield on July 10.

French-language comic Bun Hay Mean brings his brand new show Kill Bun to the Olympia Theatre on July 11.

American stand-up sensation Matt Rife at the Bell Centre on July 13.

British comedy superstar Russell Howard headlines Russell Howard Live at the Olympia Theatre on July 24.

Canadian comic Mae Martin headlines Mae Martin & Friends at the Olympia Theatre on July 25.

Comedian Anthony Rodia brings his Laugh Till It Hurts Tour to the Olympia Theatre on August 7.

American sitcom writer Phil Rosenthal at the Olympia Theatre on September 5.

American comic Michael Blaustein brings his The Taste Me Tour to the Olympia Theatre on September 6.

Indian comedian Zakir Khan at the Olympia Theatre on September 7.

Scottish stand-up comedian Kevin Bridges at the Olympia Theatre on September 10.

French-language stand-up comedy show by Algerian-Belgian comic Nawell Madani at the Olympia Theatre from September 12 to 14.

British comedy sensation Sarah Millican brings her Late Bloomer Tour to Théatre Maisonneuve on September 22.

Rick Mercer’s STAND-UP FOR CANADA Comedy Tour at the Olympia Theatre on September 25.

Check out English-language stand-up comics at Comedyville located behind the Deli Planet in Central Train Station, with shows Thursday to Saturday. Click here for show descriptions.

Some of the city’s best stand-up comics perform at Double’s Comedy Club, a bilingual comedy night held the last Wednesday of each month at 9 p.m. at Double’s Late Night, a contemporary dive bar in the heart of Montréal’s Mile-End.

The Montréal Comedy House downtown presents local and national comics.

Support local, national and international comics at Montréal’s legendary The Comedy Nest nightclub located in the historic Montréal Forum. Click here for full programming.