Things to do in Montréal: April 28 to May 4

Montréal coasts into May with colourful shows from Cirque du Soleil and more international productions, visual art that illuminates the city, the return of gourmet food trucks, the literary delights of Blue Metropolis, and live pop, punk, soul and electro.

Hop on a swing and make some music at mini-playground 21 Swings outside Place des Arts in the Quartier des Spectacles, part of this year’s Digital Spring art-meets-tech creations. It’s the final weekend to see hundreds of pre-migration butterflies at the Botanical Garden greenhouse’s Butterflies Go Free event and the start of Bird Fest at the Biodôme, part of the Montréal Space for Life‘s many activities. Attend readings, panel discussions, workshops, parties and more at the annual Blue Metropolis literary festival, April 24-30 – also featuring a wonderful Children’s Series. Or let kids solve forensic problems at the Montréal Science Centre’s CSI: The Experience. Walk up Saint-Laurent to see bright building-sized murals or take a walk off the beaten path to discover welcoming and wonderful quirky spots in Montréal, from urban caves to arcades to Montréal’s best karaoke bars. Watch Major League Soccer team the Montréal Impact take on the Vancouver Whitecaps at Stade Saputo on April 29. And have fun for free with free things to do this Spring in Montréal.

See the city sights and eat well in the process on Montréal’s best food tours. Treat yourself to fine dining in one of downtown’s most historic and decadent districts during Golden Square Mile Restaurant Week. Catch Québéc’s traditional sugar shack season just before it ends at Cabane à sucre urbaine in Plateau-Mont-Royal on April 30 at Parc Wilfrid-Laurier, featuring maple syrup taffy, pouding chômeur, folk music and more. There’s more sugar where that came from at the city’s best candy shops. Explore the menus of new Montréal restaurants, relax with a cup of tea at Montréal’s tea houses, or try a signature cocktail at one of Montréal’s hidden bars. Whether you’re a committed vegan or just trying it out, consult our ultimate guide to vegan eating in Montréal. And as the weather warms to al fresco dining temperatures, consult our 2017 guide to Montréal’s food trucks and street food.

Don’t miss incredible acrobatics, costumes, parkour and motor bikes in the millennial-era story of Cirque du Soleil’s VOLTA, under the big top in the Old Port of Montréal. A visual and musical spectacle, Russian performance artist Slava Polunin’s Slava’s Snowshow wows at Theâtre St-Denis May 2-14. In theatre: at Centaur Theatre see Clybourne Park, a neighbourhood drama tracing racial tensions in Chicago, and hilarious and heartwarming Bed Breakfast; The Segal Centre presents hit musical Million Dollar Quartet, inspired by the true rock ‘n’ roll story of Sam Phillips gathering Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley for an historic recording session. As part of Montréal’s winter-spring dance program: the National Ballet of Ukraine performs The Marriage of Figaro at Place des Arts; Danse Danse presents Flemish choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rain at Place des Arts May 4-6; Agora de la Danse presents free outdoor show 15 X LA NUIT every night at 9 p.m. in Place des Festivals; Danse Cité presents TIERRA by Netherlands choreographer Jens van Daele and O Vertigo’s Ginette Laurin, inspired by the invisible maelstrom of the universe, at Cinquième Salle to April 29; and (MORE) Propositions for the Aids Museum merges music, images and movement in memory of the AIDS crisis, at La Chapelle on April 28, followed May 2-6 by Mykalle Bielinski’s immersive multimedia opera Gloria.

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See how the ’60s changed the city in three new exhibitions: the photography of The Sixties in Montréal: Archives de Montréal at City Hall, colourful outfits and products created by Québec designers for Expo 67 at the McCord Museum‘s Fashioning Expo 67, and the technological innovations of EXPO 67: A World of Dreams at the Stewart Museum. Old Montréal landmark Notre-Dame Basilica is not only one of the city’s most stunning churches but currently lights up with beautiful high-tech spectacle Aura, while the surrounding streets are illuminated by the historic tableaux projections of mobile-app project Cité Memoire. Photography exhibition Aime comme Montréal celebrates the city’s diversity in an installation at Place des arts. And Aboriginal Spring of Art 3 presents Kahnawakeró:non (Kahnawá:ke) artists Carla Hemlock and Babe Hemlock’s Tehatikonhsatatie: For the Faces That Are Yet to Come at the Maison de la culture Frontenac in the HOMA neighbourhood.

Bring vivid colour into your springtime at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts special exhibition CHAGALL: COLOUR AND MUSIC, featuring 340 pieces by the Russian-French artist with musical accompaniment. Over at the Musée d’art contemporain see work by foremost Mexican artist Teresa Margolles and Québec artist Emanuel Licha’s Now Have a Look at This Machine documentary installation. The eclectic and multidisciplinary Festival Accès Asie opens May 2 and coincides with Canada’s Asian Heritage Month – its first week features a free opening night cocktail party at Lion d’Or, recital by Japanese pianist Kimihiro Yasaka on May 6, exhibition Smile of Afghanistan by Iranian photographer Hamed Tabein at the Gesù, and the Afghanistan Culture Shock talk on May 7. Berlin-based British artist Ed Atkins poses questions on human bodies, digital creation and reality in video exhibition Modern Piano Music at DHC-ART. Never Apart‘s Spring Exhibition features Two-Spirit Sur-Thrivance and the Art of Interrupting Narratives. Pointe-à-Callière archaeology and history museum presents the fascinating Amazonia: The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest. Travel through virtual worlds in films by Felix Paul Studios at the Phi Centre‘s Virtual Reality Garden and in the high-tech visuals and music of Résonances Boréales and the Music Legacy Project at the Satosphere surround-sound dome to April 29.

Friday night’s eclectic: singer Fredy V lauches his world-music meets disco-funk album #ItTakesAVillage at the Phi Centre, atmospheric Brooklyn indie-rockers Wilsen play Bar Le Ritz P.D.B., and none other than cult Canadian metal band Anvil let loose at Foufounes Electriques. On Saturday, popular French singer-songwriter Zaz jazzes up the Bell Centre, South African electronic dance music duo Goldfish make waves at Bar Le Ritz P.D.B., and trance producer Andrew Rayel conjures up a magical night on the New City Gas dance floor. Bernard Labadie returns to conduct The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in a concert of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven on April 29 and 30 at Maison Symphonique. Chill out with the live ambient music of Californian-based Tycho, with opener Beacon, on Sunday, April 30 at Metropolis, while folk-soul duo Overcoats and Yoke Lore add more smoothness to Sunday night in an early show at Divan Orange. Legendary British punk band The Damned slips into town with soulful garage rockers The BellRays on Tuesday, May 2 at Club Soda, while L.A. psych-rockers Froth trip us out at Bar Le Ritz P.D.B. Wednesday night features British rockers Catfish The Bottlemen at Théâtre Corona, ’90s rock stars Supersuckers and The Von Rebels at Divan Orange, hip hop artist and Juno award winner Jazz Cartier at Le Belmont, and the joys of local jazzy singer-songwriter Sara-Danielle at Bar Le Ritz P.D.B. On May 4, Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts violinist Alexandre Da Costa and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in a concert of contemporary Latin music at Maison symphonique, while Florida pop-punk band Mayday Parade and Knuckle Puck give lessons in romantics at Théâtre Corona, and Philly’s Laser Background brings his psych-pop stylings to Bar Le Ritz P.D.B.

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