Montréal Pride shows its colours
The Village Summer Festivals and events
Hundreds of thousands of revellers are expected to attend the 20th edition of the Fierté Montréal Festival, the largest LGBTQ+ Pride gathering in the Francophone world, from July 31 to August 9.
The Fierté Montréal Festival will be held on the Esplanade of the Olympic Park as its main site, alongside a renewed major presence in the LGBTQ+ Village.
Fierté Montréal Festival: the largest LGBTQ+ Pride gathering in the Francophone world
The Pride parade
The 2.1 km long Pride parade route along René-Levesque Boulevard from Metcalfe to Atataken streets symbolically begins in the former downtown “West Village” on Sunday, August 9, at 1 p.m. and winds down in the heart of the current Village in the east.
This year’s theme is “Shine Together!” Do not forget to observe the minute of silence during the parade at 2:30 p.m. to honour those lost to anti-LGBTQ+ violence and HIV/AIDS.
Community Days
This year Fierté Montréal Festival hosts two Community Days on August 7 and 8. During Community Days, kiosks for the many exciting organizations, community groups and sports teams catering to the LGBTQ+ communities will line the Sainte-Catherine Street pedestrian mall between Saint-Hubert and Papineau streets in the Village, daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Village Festival
Throughout the Fierté Montréal Festival, the LGBTQ+ Village will shine with Pride from July 31 to August 9. This edition will showcase more than 150 local artists.
The Loto-Québec Stage located at the corner of Papineau and Saint Catherine Street comes alive every evening at 7 p.m. with various events. Hosts include Montréal drag stars Drag-on-fly, Barbada, Rainbow and Lady Boom Boom. On August 4, comedy takes centre stage with The Tranna Wintour Show, followed by Comédie Queer hosted by Coco Belliveau. Other shows include Bloc Bollywood on August 7, and the vibrant Latin party Zénith following the arrival of the Parade on August 9 starting at 3 p.m.
From July 31 to August 2, the first edition of the Rainbow Market will showcase LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and artists in pop-up spaces.
The aforementioned Community Days is back on August 7 and 8.
The Jardins Gamelin will celebrate Pride with shows on July 31 and August 4.
Indoor shows and events
Local artists also take centre stage at various indoor events:
- Lumière des Nations celebrates Indigenous and Two-Spirit communities with Jeremy Dutcher and Laura Niqua at Le National theatre on July 31.
- Supernature whacking competition at Club Soda on July 31.
- Them Fatale collective at Le National on August 1.
- Unikorn queer club kid party at Club Soda on August 1 starting at 10 p.m.
- Pleasuredome dance party at the SAT on August 1 starting at 11 p.m.
- Drag superstar Mona de Grenoble hosts Des Gags et des Paillettes at Le National on August 6
- La Louche XXL all-star show by Nicky Doll at Club Soda on August 7. Guests include Denali, Foxy Lexxi Brown, Gisèle Lullaby, and Pangina Heals.
Olympic Park Esplanade
The TD Stage at the Olympic Park Esplanade hosts three major outdoor events:
The festivities kick off on August 7 with Soirée 100% Drag, the world’s largest free drag show hosted by Barbada and Rita Baga, featuring local drag royalty alongside drag artists from various RuPaul’s Drag Race franchises.
The 20th Anniversary Show imagined and directed by Geneviève Labelle and Mélodie Noël Rousseau from the collective Pleurer dans’ douche is on August 8.
Then Montréal’s biggest dancefloor comes alive for the Mega T-Dance featuring DJ Sam, Reid Bourgeois, Sydney Sarayeva, and Fran Albuquerque on August 9. Runs from 3 to 11 p.m. The dancefloor really fills up after the Pride parade.
The Fierté Montréal Festival runs from July 31 to August 9. Click here for a complete listing of all Fierté Montréal Festival events and activities.
Visiting Montréal? Click here for a guide to bars in the Village and beyond.
Click here to find out where to see drag shows in Montréal.
Want to discover some Montréal queer history? Click here for the story of Pride in Montréal.
Click here for some historic Montréal LGBTQ+ milestones.
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.