Frankophone Kultur, Cirque du Soleil & Montreals Kunstszene
Montreal's francophone culture (the culture of the largest French-speaking city in the world outside of Paris — the city whose French language and culture have been the source of some of the most significant cultural productions in 20th and 21st-century North America): the Cirque du Soleil (the circus company founded in Montreal in 1984 by the street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix — the company that revolutionized the circus art form and grew into the largest theatrical producer in the world), the National Film Board of Canada (the NFB — the federal film production and distribution agency established in Montreal in 1939, responsible for some of the most celebrated documentary and animated films in cinema history), and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts define Montreal's cultural output.
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Cirque du Soleil — The World's Largest Circus Company from Montreal
Cirque du Soleil (founded 1984, Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix, international headquarters Saint-Michel district) has 44 shows worldwide and has performed for 200 million people in 450 cities — the company was born from a troupe of Quebec street performers and grew to employ 3,000+ artists from 50+ countries; the TOHU theatre (Cirque's neighbourhood circus arts centre, Saint-Michel) hosts emerging Quebec circus artists as counterpoint to the global commercial operation.
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Festival International de Jazz de Montréal — The World's Largest Jazz Festival
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (June/July, 11 days, Quartier des Spectacles) is the Guinness World Record holder for world's largest jazz festival — 3,000 concerts over 11 days, 2 million+ attendees per year, 400 performances free on outdoor stages; the festival presents jazz in its broadest definition (Afrobeat, blues, Brazilian, and electronic are all programmed); the Quartier des Spectacles (17 stages, Place des Arts as hub) is closed to traffic for the duration.
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OFFTA and the Montreal Theatre Scene
Montreal's French-language theatre (OFFTA festival, TNM, Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui) is the second most important in the French-speaking world after Paris — the Francophone theatrical tradition produces work that regularly transfers to Paris and is distinguished by a political directness and experimental form unusual in commercial theatre; director Robert Lepage (Cirque du Soleil collaborator, founder of Ex Machina theatre company in Quebec City) is the internationally best-known product of Quebec's theatrical culture.
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MELS Studios — Bilingual Film Production City
MELS Studios (Chabanel Street, former garment district) is one of North America's largest film production facilities — 'X-Men: Days of Future Past', 'Arrival', '12 Monkeys' (TV), and dozens of Hollywood productions have filmed in Montreal (typically representing fictional New York or Boston) because Quebec's 40% tax credit makes Montreal competitive with other North American production cities; the bilingual production environment (set workers typically speak both languages) is a distinctive asset.
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La Fontaine Park — Montreal's Urban Living Room
Parc La Fontaine (Plateau-Mont-Royal, 32 hectares) is the most heavily used park in Montreal — the two artificial lakes, the Théâtre de Verdure (free outdoor concerts in summer), and the winter skating rink (maintained by city workers from December–March) make it a year-round communal gathering space; the surrounding Plateau neighbourhood (French-Canadian bohemian, the setting of Michel Tremblay's plays) provides the social context; rental pedal boats (summer) and hot chocolate stands (winter) complete the picture.
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Quartier des Spectacles — The Entertainment District With a Philosophy
Quartier des Spectacles (2007, the deliberate creation of a new cultural district around Place des Arts) covers 1km² with 80+ performance venues, 30 festivals per year, and 7 permanent outdoor digital art installations — the RED pathway (a red dot trail connecting 80+ cultural institutions) and the LED-lit snow and ice public art installations (January–February) make the district a year-round cultural destination rather than a venue cluster; the 80,000-seat Symphonique fountain (summer) is the largest such installation in Canada.