Montréal cultural calendar
Leisure activities Culture, arts and heritage The city
Blockbuster museum exhibitions, live music concerts, theatre and comedy are among the many live entertainment choices in Montréal this spring-summer 2026.
POP MUSIC
Some highlights of upcoming national and international tours:
June
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
Hip Hop superstar A$AP Rocky at Bell Centre (June 1), crooner Josh Groban at Place Bell (June 2), Sacramento rock bank Cake at the Olympia Theatre (June 3), Australian punk rockers Amyl and The Sniffers at Place Bell (June 5), Canadian rockers Arkells Théâtre Beanfield (June 5), Canadian rock icons Triumph at Place Bell (June 10), Grammy-winning Australian electronic dance music trio RÜFÜS DU SOL at Parc Jean-Drapeau (June 20), country-rock icon Steve Earle at Théâtre Beanfield (June 25), RnB Hip Hop legends NE-YO & AKON bring their co-headliner Nights Like This Tour to the Bell Centre (June 26), Franco-Algerian singer-rapper Rilès headlines MTELUS two nights (June 28 and 29), goth alt-rockers Evanescence at Bell Centre (June 30), and Father John Misty at MTELUS (June 30)
Concerts of note: Exquisite Montréal soulman Clerel headlines Clerel & Friends: A Donny Hathaway Tribute at O Patro Vys (June 6), and Montréal’s international Queen of the Blues Dawn Tyler Watson headlines her Jazz Project at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, a free show at Le Studio TD on June 26.
Performers Flo Rida, The Temptations Revue and Max-a-Million headline the 21st edition of Strangers in the Night gourmet charity gala at Complexe Pointe Claire on June 27, benefiting the West Island Women’s Shelter and the Kat Demes Pavilion at the Montréal Children’s Hospital.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the landmark film Hedwig & the Angry Inch adapted from his off-Broadway hit, writer, director and star John Cameron Mitchell will screen a 4K restoration of the 2001 cult movie musical at Théâtre Beanfield on June 30, followed by a live post-screening conversation, audience Q&A and a special acoustic performance, as well as post-show meet-and-greets.
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. 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.
CITY OF FESTIVALS
Montréal hosts many star-studded festivals each spring:
Piknic Électronik runs at Parc Jean-Drapeau from May 17 to October 18. The outdoor festival books the world’s top house and techno DJs all summer long.
A festival of contemporary dance and theatre, the star-studded 20th edition of the internationally-acclaimed Festival TransAmériques presents some 25 shows from May 28 to June 10. Click here for full festival programming.
The bilingual St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival returns June 1 to 21 when 500 artists from some 90 producing companies present more than 800 indoor theatre performances at this year’s 36th edition. The OFF Fringe runs concurrently from June 3 to June 21.
The 26th edition of the Suoni Per II Popolo music festival runs throughout June.
The world’s top graffiti artists paint buildings along Saint-Laurent Boulevard during the 14th edition of MURAL public art festival which runs June 4 to 14.
The 37th edition of Les Francos de Montréal runs June 12 to 20. Click here for concert info.
The 46th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal runs June 25 to July 4. Click here for all performing artists and concerts.
Click here for a full listing of Montréal spring and summer festivals.
THEATRE
The Segal Centre for the Performing Arts presents a new Canadian musical from Michael Rubinoff, original producer of Come From Away: Grow is an irreverent and moving tale that follows two sheltered Amish sisters whose journey of self-discovery takes root in the most unexpected place: a cannabis dispensary. Runs May 24 to June 14.
Festival TransAmériques
A festival of contemporary dance and theatre, the star-studded 20th edition of the internationally-acclaimed Festival TransAmériques presents some 25 shows from May 28 to June 10. Click here for full festival programming.
Montréal Fringe Festival
After a record-breaking 2025 edition, the bilingual St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival returns June 1 to 21 when 500 artists from some 90 producing companies present more than 800 indoor performances at this year’s 36th edition. The OFF Fringe runs concurrently from June 3 to June 21.
The Fringe celebrates diversity, accessibility and artistic freedom and remains one of the most affordable entertainment options in town with 100% of the ticket price returned to the performing artists.
Outdoor free programming at the hugely popular Fringe Park – located at Parc des Ameriques, corner Rachel and St-Laurent – features live bands, as well as the festival’s marquee event Drag Race on June 20, featuring professional drag stars versus a bevy of Fringe fest beauties in a knock-down Battle Royale of skill-testing obstacles!
Outdoor free programming at the hugely popular Fringe Park – located at Parc des Ameriques, corner Rachel and St-Laurent – features live bands, as well as the festival’s marquee event Drag Race on June 13, featuring professional drag stars versus a bevy of Fringe fest beauties in a knock-down Battle Royale of skill-testing obstacles!
Broadway Across Canada and evenko present smash hit touring productions at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Their 2026 Broadway season includes Moulin Rouge! The Musical (June 9 to 14) and the triumphant return of Disney’s THE LION KING for a whopping 24 performances (August 19 to September 6).
Click here for more English theatre in Montréal.
Click here for French-language theatre in Montréal.
DANCE
To close their season, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens presents Lake, a bold reinterpretation of Swan Lake by Ivan Cavallari. The plot leaves behind the enchanted kingdom for the set of an advertising studio, where an ad campaign for two perfumes, Vertige Noir and Cygne Blanc, is being shot. Runs May 28 to June 7 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.
Founded in 1999 in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, the multi-disciplinary programming of “The MAI” (Montréal, arts interculturels) promotes hybrid and innovative practices in dance, theatre, visual arts, speech arts, performance. Dance-related highlights include the inter-disciplinary Entre-Deux (June 3 to 6).
CLASSICAL STAGE
Founded in 1939, Canada’s renowned Orchestre Classique de Montréal presents their season-closing concert Viva Vivaldi: Four Seasons and Gloria at the Maison Symphonique (May 30).
The Orchestre Métropolitainpresents Grammy-winning OM Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin to close their season with Songs of Hope at the Maison Symphonique (June 14).
The 31st edition of the star-studded Montreal Chamber Music Festival presents 16 concerts at Bourgie Hall and the Maison symphonique. Click here for concert info. Runs June 9 to 21.
Over at Bourgie Hall, Les Violons du Roy in Rome, from Corelli to Nino Rota with contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay (June 5).
Click here for the full Bourgie Hall program.
MUSEUMS
The superb exhibition Richard Avedon: Immortal. Portraits of Aging, 1951-2004 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents some 100 portraits of public figures like Duke Ellington, Patti Smith, Jean Renoir, and William Burroughs, that capture the universal experience of aging. Avedon highlighted our infirmities, wrinkles, crow’s feet, folds of skin, liver spots — visible markers of what he called “the avalanche of age.” While no celebrity eludes Avedon’s unsparing eye, his empathy for his subjects in these B&W photos is palpable. None of us escape age. Runs to August 9.
The Torlonia Collection: Masterpieces of Roman Sculpture exhibition at the MMFA displays 58 life-like marble sculptures: Roman statues, busts, and sarcophagi; stunning bas-reliefs; mythological creatures; and striking portraits of gods and goddesses, emperors – including Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian and Commodus – and their wives. Runs to July 19.
Click here for more Montréal museum exhibitions.
Montréal’s Studio Shaman presents the virtual reality experience ROME, In Caesar’s Footsteps at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, transporting audiences back 2,000 years to the assassination of Julius Caesar. A free-roam VR adventure, visitors explore a meticulously reconstructed Rome: Caesar’s private gardens, the Forum Romanum, the Curia of Pompey where the Senate vote takes place, military camps in Gaul, and the Circus Maximus. With hand-tracking motion capture, participants interact naturally with scenes—voting by raising their hands, handling objects, and influencing key moments. Two different endings are possible depending on the choices made along the journey. Runs to June 28.
Click here for more Montréal immersive 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 Montréal Science Centre’s IMAX cinema screens films for all ages.
CIRCUS ARTS
Specializing in contemporary circus, La TOHU presents the National Circus School Graduating Students Show showcasing young NCS 2026 cohort circus artists before they join professional circus companies. Runs May 29 to June 7.
After its record-breaking Montréal run drew more than 300,000 spectators in 2023, Cirque du Soleil brings back ECHO under the Big Top at the Old Port of Montréal until August 16. Click here for tickets.
CINÉMA
Created with the blessing of the iconic rock band, Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon screens under the starry dome of the Planétarium on Fridays and Saturdays until June 21. This show merges the original musical score with spectacular visuals of the solar system and immersive effects in a surround-sound environment.
The Cinéma du Musée presents Surrealist Saturdays until July 7. The series features cult classics and essential films of the genre such as Blue Velvet (July 4 and 7). Click here for the full line-up.
The Cinéma du Musée presents enraCINÉ until July 11. The series explores the intersections of migration, identity, artistic practice, and cinema. Ten artists from immigrant and Indigenous backgrounds each select a film that has profoundly shaped their understanding of identity, belonging, and cultural continuity. Click here for the full line-up.
The new PARC AT MIDNIGHT cycle (May 1 to June 28) at the Cinéma du Parc offers nocturnal screenings in the great tradition of the famous rep-house “midnight movies” of the 70s. Click here for film schedule.
The Montreal Cinéclub Film Society screens classic movies at various venues every second week. Click here for the full program.
L’AMOUR À MINUIT is a non-profit Cinéma L’Amour screening series of cult classics that raises funds to restore and maintain the iconic century-old theatre that was built in 1914. Click here for the full program.
Queer Cinema Club Montréal presents monthly screenings at the Cinéma du Parc.
The IMAX cinema at the Montréal Science Centre in the Old Port screens films for all ages.
LITERATURE
Montréal author Daniel Allen Cox launches the paperback of his acclaimed bestselling memoir I Felt the End Before It Came. Cox will be joined by special guests Tamara Jong and Ellen Orme Adams. At Librairie Pulp Books & Cafe, June 9 at 7 p.m.
DRAG SHOWS
Montréal drag superstar Rita Baga hosts her Cabaret Caf’Conc’ variety show at the iconic Caf’Conc’ (short for Café Concert) at the Montréal Marriott Chateau Champlain Hotel. Click here for upcoming shows.
Montréal is one of the drag capitals of the world. Located in The Village, drag icon Mado Lamotte’s Cabaret Mado and the 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.
Canadian comic Tom Green brings his Stompin’ Comedy Tour to Théâtre Beanfield on June 13.
Comedy Central superstar Daniel Tosh headlines the Olympia Theatre on June 28.
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.
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.
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.