Things to do in Montréal in November 2026

Welcome to Montréal!

To enjoy the best the city has to offer during your stay in November, please don't think of yourself as a tourist, but as one of us. Whether you're here for a few days, a few weeks or a few years, we're counting on you to enjoy Montréal in a spirit of respect, responsibility and celebration!

As the weather shifts into fall, Montréal festival season doesn’t stop: fall festivals and other major events celebrate artistry, culture, food and the city itself. Also explore the many free things to do this fall, which range from outdoor performances to cultural festivals. Plus so much more:

• Festivals continue to entertain downtown and throughout the city, starting with the foodie flagship event, MTLàTABLE, which returns for an 14th delicious edition from October 29 to November 15. Read more in the food section below. 
• Expect a musical cornucopia at the Arab World Festival of Montréal as well, which from October 30 to November 14 will animate Espace Culturel Kawalees and spaces throughout town with original productions in dance, music, theater and multidisciplinary arts, debates, conferences, lectures and films.
• Classical music lovers will thrill at the Bach Festival, which presents more than 30 concerts featuring hundreds of incredible musicians, singers and conductors from November 4 to 9. 
• November is the perfect time to cozy up at the cinema, with a plenitude of film festivals on offer: from the French language films presented in English of CINEMANIA from November 4 to 15, to the real-world subjects of the Montréal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) from November 19 to 29, to Canada’s first LGBTQ+ film  festival Image+Nation from November 19 to 29. Read more in the film section below.
• World music festival Mundial Montréal showcases the best in new global music at several great local venues from November 17 to 21, overlapping with indie music festival M for Montréal, back from November 18 to 21. See more in the live music section below.
• Since the annual Santa Claus Parade happens in November, Christmas is definitely already in the air: The Holiday Train CPKC returns with a North American tour featuring a stop in Montréal on Wednesday, November 19 at the Montreal West (EXO Station, 7499 chemin Broughton), at 7 pm.
• The Salon du Livre returns for its 49th edition introducing you to Montréal’s literary community, featuring author readings, roundtable discussions and plenty of books for sale,  from November 25 to 29 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. 
• And Montréal has a ton of holiday markets for you to explore, including Montréal’s Christmas Village, starting on November 26 at the Atwater Market and lasting well into December. The Great Christmas Market kicks off on November 13 and presents the perfect opportunity for early Holiday shopping at Place des Festivals — but don’t worry if you’re busy, it runs until the New Year.

November’s foodie adventures

A flagship event of Montréal’s culinary scene, MTLàTABLE — also known as Montréal’s restaurant week — returns for a 14th edition from October 29 to November 15. Discover dishes from around the world, BYOB hot spots, vegetarian delights, delectable desserts, date-night destinations, bodacious brunches and more. See the MTLàTABLE event website for the lowdown and the full list of 160 participating restaurants. Book your meals now, spots are going fast! 

Fall sports

Cheer on the Montréal Canadiens as the NHL season gathers full steam with lots of nail-biting matches happening on home turf at the Bell Centre. See the whole month’s schedule here. And don’t skip the Montréal Vicitoire! Cheer on the CF Montréal soccer team at home at the Saputo Stadium throughout the month, the Roses de Montréal female soccer team at various locations, the Montréal Alliance basketball team at various locations and the Montréal Alouettes football team at the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. 

If you can’t make the games in person, watch all the hockey, soccer, football, basketball, MMA and more at Montréal’s sports bars. 

Get swinging with a foray into the circus arts (since Montréal is a bona fide capital of circus) at the Montréal Circus Academy, where you can learn flying trapeze, pole fitness, exotic pole dance, aerial silks, aerial hammock, straps, handstands, flexibility and more. 

The Grand Chelem Baseball Centre, located downtown, invites you to step up to the plate. Whether you’re an elite player or a casual hitter, Grand Chelem offers baseball and softball training for all levels and any age. 

Wanna play? Head to the Centre Eaton de Montréal where the PLAYBOX Centre has a game for everyone, from internationally renowned crane games to arcade games, skill games and VR attractions. Super Super at DIX30 in Brossard is another super lively, family-friendly option, while Royalmount has a very fun arcade at The Rec Room, next to the Cineplex cinema, where you can duke it out in VR games and more before munching burgers or nachos (with accompanying cocktails, for parents) at the onsite eateries. Head to the Casino de Montréal to play on life-size arcade games at their ARcade by Moment Factory gaming experience: a fusion of multimedia and video game technology in two play areas that pits teams against each other in six interactive games. Each game combines motion-detection, projection technologies and videogame mechanics. Montréal loves exploring the retro side of play with its selection of arcades.

Montréal Bowling is the perfect spot downtown to play a few rounds of bowling, play some pool, watch some sports, play some arcade games and grab some great snacks and cocktails.

If you’re feeling more artsy, Art Chaos is a fantastic family- or group-friendly activity in Mile End, where you can paint crazy creations on rapidly spinning canvases, for a truly interactive experience. 

The West Island’s Ecomuseum Zoo is a wonderful place to glimpse local wildlife in their natural outdoor habitats and even have breakfast with some of them throughout the month.

Explore the many outdoor activities the city has in store, including the list of free things to do this season, see incredible city views from Mount Royal Park: head for a walk through the park and up the stairs to the lookout, or bus or drive up to Beaver Lake. Stroll (or cross-country ski, or skate) around Parc La Fontaine, go to Saint-Michel neighbourhood’s Parc Frédéric-Back, or cross the river to Parc Jean-Drapeau for a riverside walk and a different view of the city. While there, visit the Espace pour la vie Biosphère too, for environment-focused exhibitions and more.

Speaking of Espace pour la vie museums, enjoy the Jardin botanique’s sprawling tropical greenhouse environments, a welcome hit of warmth on these cold days. Experience several wild ecosystems at the Biodôme (there are penguins, otters, monkeys and more), explore the mysteries of the universe at the Planétarium, and learn about the thousands of butterflies, moths and other insects at the Insectarium. 

For the ultimate relaxation session after a day of trekking (or just because you deserve it), visit Bota Bota, spa-sur-l’eau, a unique spa located in a pair of moored boats on the St. Lawrence River in the Old Port, and other world-class spas like Scandinave Spa Vieux-Montréal, Avie Spa & Coiffure, Rainspa and Strøm Nordic Spa.

Feel like learning something? Make Montréal your best skillcation location ever with a slew of classes and workshops, including those at La Maison Générale in Mile End. 

Fall art and exhibitions 

The fall season is in hyperdrive in museums and galleries around town, so get your cultural fill in Montréal’s magnificent museums.

Visit the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts throughout November to see Montreal painter Allison Katz’s exhibition Jeu d’esprit, her first institutional solo exhibition in Quebec. Also catch Structures by Anne Kahane, who was one of the most important Montréal sculptors of her generation — the first female sculptor to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale.

The McCord Stewart Museum bridges past and present in its exhibitions, which throughout November includes askōhtēskanohwē ​by multidisciplinary visual artist Carrie Allison, part of the Artist-in-Residence program and the 8th edition of the Biennale d’art contemporain autochtone. Also starting this month, Sovereign Stitches + Wild Weaves brings together nearly 40 Indigenous artists whose work challenges the borders between contemporary art, culture, fashion, design, and customary practices.

Go to Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex in Old Montréal to board the good ship D’Iberville to embark on an immersive and interactive seafaring adventure taking place in the days of New France, with their permanent exhibition Come Aboard! Pirates or Privateers? Also on view is the exhibition Heroes of Greece: The Age of Troy, featuring a remarkable selection of close to 400 authentic objects from 28 Greek museums and archaeological sites.

You’ll also be near the kid-friendly Montréal Science Centre, where you can explore interactive exhibitions that investigate the scientific world, like the permanent exhibition Human: a voyage to the very heart of human evolution through a fully interactive and highly energetic environment. Explore – Life-Sized Science is a permanent exhibition that explains the wonders at work behind motion, air, light, water, geometry, matter and code via interactive games involving giant soap bubbles, water tables — even a crane.

At PHI, two exhibitions shine this month: Stephanie Comilang: ANTHEMS, exploring migration, technology, and the invisible networks that connect us, and Jean-François Bouchard: Turn or Burn, exploring the connections between belief, image, and power in the public sphere.

Visit MEM – Centre des mémoires montréalaises, a cutting-edge museum dedicated to the voices of Montrealers presiding over the corner of Boulevard Saint-Laurent and Rue Sainte-Catherine. Throughout the month you can catch Detours – Urban Experiences, an immersive exhibition that takes you into the world of Montrealers with singular backgrounds, and the permanent exhibition MONTRÉAL: which highlights the diverse experiences that have contributed to the city’s distinctive characteristics while bringing its story to life on a human scale.

Travel back in time as you tour the rooms of Château Ramezay and visit the historical site of Château Dufresne near the Olympic Stadium. The Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréalexplores the history of medical care in Montréal. 

Not far from the city, climb aboard railway cars, learn about the history of the railroad and explore miniature railways at the Exporail the Canadian Railway Museum.

Discover the vivid history and present of Quebec ceramics at the Musée des métiers d’arts du Québec, and Canadian arts and crafts at large at La Guilde in the Golden Square Mile. Experience a massive immersive art experience in surround-sound and laser light at OASIS Immersion, where Root for Nature extrapolates on biodiversity in all its splendour.

Speaking of immersive experiences, the Fabulous FAB Exhibition is an all-around trippy space spanning three floors in the Centre Eaton de Montréal, where you can experience no less than 20 extraordinary worlds. And don’t forget Montréal’s plethora of small, independent art galleries, from Bradley Ertaskiran to Hugues Charbonneau, Galerie B-312, SBC Gallery and Ellephant downtown, Oboro and MAI in the Plateau, Centre Clark and Dazibao in Mile End, Galerie d’Outremont in (you guessed it) Outremont and many, many others in every neighbourhood.

Onstage this November

Montréal’s cultural calendar is packed this season, with entertainment for everyone on the city’s many stages. Among the world-class theatre, dance, opera, circus and more gracing the city’s stages throughout November, you’ll find:

• Les Grands Ballets presents the best of classical ballet with their rendition of Midsummer Night Dreams on its last night on November 1 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Choreographer Guillaume Côté offers a deeply human reimagining of Shakespeare’s 1595 play.
• At Centaur Theatre, catch the last day of Wonderful Joe on November 1, a play about a man and his dog setting out on a fantastical odyssey through a fractured world, and then from November 4 to 22 you can see Holiday in Zürich: a darkly funny portrait of a happily married couple in their 70s on the brink of a jam-packed trip to Switzerland, where romance, mortality, and wildly different ideas about “one last adventure” collide.
• On November 3 head to Théâtre Sainte-Catherine for a workshop performance by Jos, titled Refrigerator Stories: A Search for Home. The intimate evening of real life stories features original songs about belonging, set to music by Emmy-winning composer Sacha Hoedemaker. Not to be missed!
• From November 4 to 15 at Théâtre Maisonneuve, Entre chiens et louves is a mix of circus and music by pianist and composer Alexandra Stréliski. She will accompany the artists of Cirque Le Roux on stage with a score of her own works and more.
• On November 20, catch a full-fledged cabaret hosted by Rita Baga at the glorious Caf’Conc’, among the most beautiful venues in town — catch up on the full month of programming.
• From November 21 to 29 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Werther is an opera featuring the local debut of rising French tenor Julien Dran and marking the grand return of Julie Boulianne to the Opéra de Montréal.
• Starting on November 22 and running into December at the Segal Theatre, Come from Away is a play about the kind-hearted people of Gander and the 7,000 passengers forced to land there when US airspace closed during the September 11 attacks.
• Dance-wise, don’t miss Ballets Jazz Montréal at Théâtre Maisonneuve. After touring 96 cities across 17 countries, Dance Me – Music by Leonard Cohen returns home one last time from November 25 to 29.

Onscreen in November

Movie lovers have got a full night Start with an international buffet of French-language films (with English subtitles), conferences and more at the CINEMANIA film festival from November 4 to 15. Then take a deep dive into real-world subjects at the Montréal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), with over 150 new documentaries from around the world, from November 19 to 29. And Canada’s first LGBTQ+ film festival Image+Nation continues into its 39th edition with over 100 features, docs and short films from around the world, also from November 19 to 29.

Film lovers will get a kick out of the live classical music concert accompanying screenings. On November 1, Symphony of Life at Maison Symphonique is an orchestral and cinematic tribute to the beauty of the living world. For the film’s world premiere, presented in concert, Anaïs Larocque’s evocative music, created in close collaboration with filmmaker Marie-Julie Dallaire, will be performed by the OM under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

There’s Symphonic Superheroes & Villains on November 5 at Maison Symphonique, a playful, epic retrospective of superhero and villain themes from Batman, Superman and Spider-Man, from the iconic versions of the 1960s to symphonic orchestrations and compositions worthy of the biggest Hollywood productions — with a few classical music essentials along the way. Then on November 26 and 27, the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra will play live to a screening of Tim Burton’s epic stop motion classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

For a larger than life screen experience, head to the Montréal Science Centre, where the IMAX cinema puts nature on the giant screen in all its glory — this month you can see the incredible Wild Asia throughout November, where you can discover wild beasts and nature up close.

See independent features, family films, documentaries and more at Montréal’s indie cinemas including Cinéma Moderne, Cinéma du Parc, Cinéma du Musée at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, and the iconic Cinémathèque québécoise in the Quartier des Spectacles (the city’s entertainment district).

Explore the city through cinema in these Hollywood movies made in Montréal.

Live music in November

We’ve got the perfect overview of Montréal’s big, can’t-miss concerts of 2026 so you can plan your highlights of the year.

• Classical lovers have a world of choice at Place des Arts this month, with concerts ranging from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to Swan Lake, not to mention tons of Arabic, world and fusion nights worth checking out too. Plan your month here.
• On November 7 and 8, a strange force will descend upon Salle Sylvain-Lelièvre at Collège de Maisonneuve when the Coro Cênico Brasileiro presents Força Estranha. After three sold-out performances in 2025, the show returns to the stage in a new edition featuring nearly 90 artists united in choral singing, theatre, movement and the exploration of the joys and challenges of immigration.
• At the Bell Centre this month, don’t miss Doja Cat on November 27, squeezed between all the hockey games. 
• You’ll find all sorts of fun music shows at MTELUS, including Blue October on November 1, Mico on November 5, Sullivan King on November 6, Palace on November 7, Wheeler Walker Jr. on November 12, Gipsy Kings on November 14, Slaughter to Prevail on November 15, Orville Peck on November 19, Perceval on November 21, Whitechapel on November 22, Dean Brody & The Reklaws on November 25, Bonobo on November 27 and Underoath on November 28.
• At Théâtre Fairmount in Mile End, catch Big Ass Truck I.E. on November 6, Collect 200 on November 7, Allan Rayman on November 12, Cannelle on November 13, The Record Company on November14, Surprise Chef on November 17, Protest the Hero on November 18, Too Many Zooz on November 20, Day In Day Out and Cabaret Speakeasy on November 21, Korpiklaani on November 27, Temples on November 28 and Venna on November 30.
• The world’s best EDM artists come to New City Gas to get you moving, including Camelphat on November 7, Miss Monique on November 14, It’s Murph on November 21 and Layton Giordani on November 28. See the full programming here. 
• At the SAT this month, don’t miss live music and immersive experiences in the incredible Satosphere, among other fun happenings, including Tobiahs on November 7, Headache on November 8, NIA Archives on November 10 and Beauz presents We Like It Bad: Chapter II on November 21. See the full month’s program here.
• Want to experience music and entertainment in a sparkling, velvet-clad theatre? Look no further than Caf’Conc, within the Marriott Château Champlain de Montréal. Find the programming here. 
• Groove to live soul, disco, jazz, funk, salsa, Cuban music Fridays and more at Le Balcon, where you can have dinner with a show, go dancing, and enjoy a gospel brunch on weekends. Find the full program here.
• Hear live jazz nightly at Montréal’s amazing jazz and blues clubs, like Diese Onze and Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill. And go out dancing late into the night at Montréal’s dance clubs.
• Indie venues Casa del Popolo and Sala Rossa have chock-a-block full monthly programs featuring both local and visiting bands, which you can find here. Look here for the many live events at hole-in-the-wall Barfly. Same for Bar Le Ritz PDB, where there’s a show nearly every night. Explore the lineups at Le Ministère and Turbo Haüs, and follow L’Escogriffe on Facebook to stay on top of all their upcoming shows. L’Hémisphère Gauche, up in Little Italy, is packed with music lovers for their nightly shows, as is Quai des Brumes on the Plateau — it never takes a night off.