Montréal Fall Cultural Calendar
Blockbuster museum exhibitions, live music concerts, theatre and comedy are among the many live entertainment choices in Montréal this Fall 2024.
POP MUSIC
Some highlights of upcoming national and international tours:
December
Saskatchewan folk-bluegrass musical ensemble The Dead South (December 6) and British indie pop artist Suki Waterhouse (December 14) both headline MTELUS, American country music singer Conner Smith (December 7) headlines the Beanfield Theatre, and Canadian punk rockers The Flatliners bring their Holiday Mêlée tour to Club Soda (December 12). Click here for tickets.
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 music legends Freddie James, Kim Richardson, Dawn Tyler Watson and Michelle Sweeney.
The Holiday House Party at the Centaur Theatre features McGill University jazz performance students (eight singers and eight instrumentalists) for two shows on December 5 and 6, under the direction of jazz legend Ranee Lee.
The HERA benefit concert for La Dauphinelle at the Fairmount Theatre on December 6 features an all-star cast of guest musicians including Melissa Auf der Maur and Sam Roberts.
Canadian music legend Andy Kim brings his annual Andy Kim Christmas benefit concert to Le 9e on December 7. Musical guests include Dan Hill, Men Without Hats and Sass Jordan.
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.
THEATRE
Montréal’s two big English-language theatres – the venerable Centaur Theatre Company in Old Montréal, and the Sylvan Adams Theatre at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts in the west end – offer varied programming.
The Segal Centre presents The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience, a concert tribute that celebrates the extraordinary life, music and poetry of the Montréal icon. The Secret Chord runs from December 8 to January 12, 2025.
Click here for more Montréal English-language theatre this fall.
DANCE
The prestigious Danse Danse series has programmed 16 shows for its 27th season including Lunar Halo with music by legendary Icelandic band Sigur Rós, at Théatre Maisonneuve from November 28 to 30; and Colombian choreographer Andrea Peña skillfully fuses dance, industrial design and queer aesthetics in BOGOTÁ (which opened the 17th Venice Biennale), in the Espace Rouge of the Wilder Building (also simply called “The Wilder”) from December 11 to 14.
BOGOTÁ is also part of the Fall 2024 season of Agora de la danse, first permanent venue in Québec dedicated to contemporary dance since 1991. The company is located in The Wilder. Click here their full schedule.
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens present their timeless adaptation of Casse-Noisette (a.k.a. The Nutcracker) which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Created by Québec choreographer Fernand Nault, this two-act classical ballet based on Hoffmann’s tale is set to the music of Tchaikovsky and brings together more than 60 dancers and 100 extras, plus Les Grands Ballets Orchestra under the direction of conductor Dina Gilbert. If you have never seen it, this famed production is a must. The Nutcracker runs at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier from December 12 to 30.
CLASSICAL STAGE
The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal continue their 2024–2025 season under the artistic direction of Maestro Rafael Payare. Highlights include ‘Tis the Season with Kent Nagano with guest vocalist, superstar contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, on December 10 at the Maison Symphonique.
Winner of the 2024 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year, the Orchestre Classique de Montréal presents their French Impressions concert of masterworks by French Impressionist composers on November 20 at Pierre-Mercure Hall. The OCM then presents their hugely popular annual Handel’s Messiah concert performed in the Crypt of Saint Joseph’s Oratory on December 12.
Montréal singer-songwriter-pianist Patrick Watsonand his band perform with conductor Francis Choinière and the FILMharmonique Orchestra at the Maison Symphonique from November 20 to 30.
Choinière and the FILMharmonique then headline Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier to perform the scores of such James Bond films as From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and Skyfall in their Bond Symphonic concert with singers Véronic DiCaire and Benoit McGinnis, from December 5 to 7.
Montréal’s prestigious Bach Festival presents a dozen all-star concerts, a choir night and concerts for children in various venues from November 16 to December 8.
The 14th season of Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts features some 90 concerts, with half of its programming showcasing Québec and Canadian artists. Highlights this autumn include the Orchestre de l’Agora on December 13; and the hugely popular annual classic Holiday season concert A Charlie Brown Christmas with legendary Montréal jazz pianist Taurey Butler on December 18 and 19. Click here for the full program.
MUSEUMS
A smash hit in Paris and Brussels, Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal in Griffintown presents the blockbuster exhibition Tintin: The Immersive Adventure which pays tribute to Hergé and the famous Belgian reporter, from the first 1929 edition of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets to the latest publications. Visitors will discover legendary artifacts and unique treasures before diving into an immersive experience with six themes such as “Tintin, Great Reporter” and “The Big Villains.” Extended to January 12, 2025.
Over at the PHI Foundation of Contempory Art in Old Montréal, the immersive touring show Oma-je is the largest North American exhibition to date by acclaimed French artist Laure Prouvost. Runs to March 9, 2025.
The McCord Stewart Museum in the Golden Square Mile presents the exhibition Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870-1927, showcasing outfits worn on these occasions from the McCord’s renowned Dress, Fashion, and Textiles collection made or worn primarily in Montréal (November 14 to August 17, 2025).
The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts in the Golden Square Mile on November 8 will inaugurate its new space dedicated to Inuit art. Located on the ground floor of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, these brightly lit modernized galleries double the exhibition space dedicated to Inuit art. Curated by Inuk artist asinnajaq ᐆᒻᒪᖁᑎᒃ uummaqutik: essence of life invites us to meditate on the rhythms of life that are particular to the circumpolar territories known together as Inuit Nunangat.
Click here for more Montréal museum exhibitions.
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
The children-friendly permanent exhibitions at the Montréal Science Centre are all open, while its IMAX cinema screens films for all ages, including Australia 3D: The Wild Continent.
Click here for the screening schedules of the latest films.
Children of all ages can also discover new worlds at Montréal Espace pour la vie, the largest natural-sciences museum complex in Canada which comprises the Botanical Garden, Planetarium, Biosphere, famed Biodôme and Insectarium. Purchasing fixed-time tickets online is highly recommended.
CIRCUS ARTS
Created by Les 7 Doigts, Pub Royal is a musical featuring the music of Les Cowboys Fringants, with seven actors-actresses / singers, seven dancers and six circus artists, at Théatre Maisonneuve from December 4 to 22.
Canada’s first LGBTQ+ film festival, the influential image + nation queer film festreturns for its 37th edition, screening more than 100 films from around the world, from November 20 to 30. The Official Selection this year includes the American-Argentinian-Italian co-production Duino.
One of North America’s leading documentary film festivals, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) presents more than 100 Canadian and international documentaries at various venues from November 20 to December 1.
Tim Burton’s cult classic The Nightmare Before Christmas will be projected on the big screen with Danny Elfman’s score performed live by the FILMharmonic Orchestra led by Maestro Erik Ochsner, on November 30 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.
The PARC AT MIDNIGHT cycle at the Cinéma du Parc offers nocturnal screenings in the great tradition of the famous rep-house “midnight movies” of the 70s.
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 Australia 3D: The Wild Continent. Click here for the screening schedules of the latest films.
LITERATURE
The 47th edition of Montréal’s French-language Salon du Livre presents roundtable discussions, literary debates and public readings by authors at the Montréal Convention Centre (Palais des congrès de Montréal) from November 27 to December 1.
The 2024 Read Québec Book Fair runs at the Casa d’Italia (505 Jean Talon East) on December 7 and 8.
Berlin-based Montréal author Matthew Fox launches his a new novel This Is It at Notre Dame des Quilles in Mile End with a short reading and a Q&A with author Christopher DiRaddo on December 19.
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
A Drag Queen Christmas hosted by Brooke Lynn Hytes features guest drag stars Plasma, Q, Shea Coulee, Trinity The Tuck, Miz Cracker, Manila Luzon, Venus and Montréal’s very own Gisele Lullaby at the Olympia Theatre on December 7.
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 various clubs throughout the city, and touring national and international comedians selling out large venues.
Canadian comedian K. Trevor Wilson headlines the Beanfield Theatre on December 5.
Canadian comedy superstar Russell Peters brings his Relax World Tour to the Bell Centre on December 6.
Best known in the French-speaking world, Moroccan-Canadian stand-up comic Gad Elmaleh headlines the Bell Centre on December 11.
Stand-Up St. Henri is a weekly comedy show highlighting women and LGBTQ+ comedians every Tuesday at Montréal Improv.
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 pm, at Double’s Late Night, a contemporary dive bar in the heart of Montréal’s Mile-End.
Montréal’s new full-time comedy club Montreal Comedy House (located downtown at 2071 Saint Catherine Street West) launches on November 23.
Support local, national and international comics at The Comedy Nest nightclub located in the historic Montréal Forum.
Richard Burnett
Richard “Bugs” Burnett is a Canadian freelance writer, editor, journalist, blogger and columnist for alt-weeklies, mainstream and LGBTQ+ publications. Bugs also knows Montréal like a drag queen knows a cosmetics counter.