Montreal, a City of Festivals
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The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. We were browsing our facebook page last week when we received a very generous message from Lauren and Todd from the fantastic trip planning and networking website GlobeTrooper
They invited us to Montreal for some good old fashioned Montreal Sightseeing while enjoying a free suite at the Omni Hotel. Not being ones to turn down a good thing when we see it, we instantly said yes!
Street Entrance to Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal
We were glad we did!
Home to the Famous Montreal Jazz Festival and Fetes Des Neiges (Winter Fest), Montreal was ablaze with energy this past weekend as The Just For Laughs Comedy Festival was taking place along side the Montreal Circus Arts Festival aka: Montreal Completement Cirque.
We didn’t organize ourselves well enough to see one of the many top acts in town for Just for Laughs. Pamela Anderson was performing this year along with Cheech and Chong and Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond Fame. But we didn’t see any of them.
It was exciting to be in Montreal for Just For Laughs though.
The Circus Festival's nightly performance drew a huge crowd in Montreal
The crowds were large and the streets were filled with people celebrating. Little did we know that there was another festival going on at this time.
The Circus Festival, Montreal Completement Cirque.
We didn’t even realize it was going on while we were there. We thought it was a special act every night to give people free events to watch in the Place des Festivals around Place-des-Arts. As we walked along the traffic free street, our attention was drawn to the main square by speakers blaring ACDC. The crowd was thick and something big was about to happen.
The Human Cannonball
David “the Bullet” Smith was about to be shot out of a cannon 154 feet into the air and we managed to see it in the nick of time. The excitement built as we listened to the heavy beat of Thunderstruck and waited in anticipation for the moment to arrive. He came out to say hello and within a couple of minutes he had crawled into the cannon. With a quick countdown from five and a loud thunderous crack he rocketed through the air landing safely in the net.
The Human Cannon Ball from Dave Bouskill on Vimeo.
The Crowd went wild.
We had never witnessed a human cannonball before and to see the World Record Holder was even better! It takes a certain breed to be able to shoot themselves out of a rocket and I will have to admit, it looks like fun!
We thought it was over and were about to walk away when we looked up in the air and saw a crane moving overhead.
Montreal is the home to Cirque du Soleil. It originated in this artistic city and when we saw the silks hanging from the crane, we knew that a performance was about to take place.
Gymnasts Perform overhead in Silks at Circus Festival
And what a spectacular performance it was!
Representing Spain, Belgium and Quebec and company of artists, acrobats, aerial performers, opera singers and Bollywood dancers, put on a spectacle for the people of Montreal.
From Le Grand Bisou where giant air marionettes Victor; the Just for Laughs Mascot and Rose our diva fall in love and share a kiss to Celine Dions, My Heart will go On to Corazon de Angeles a flying art series.
The Finale, Kiss with Just For Laughs Mascot at Circus Festival
The air show continues as gymnasts elegantly float through the air dropping feathers, balloons, confetti and snow as pyrotechnics spark in the night. The show comes in from all directions, performers on stilts weave through the crowd followed by contemporary clowns, robots, musicians and dancers.
An opera singer sings a Habanera from Carmen as a beautiful heroine dances on stage with angels flying high overhead. The performance is breathtaking with every move choreographed and every beat planned to perfection.
Opera Diva sings Carmen in Cirque Performance
Dancer in Cirque du Soleil, Montreal
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It continues to build to the finale of energetic and colourful dancers jumping to J’ai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire! The smiles are contagious and just as you think they can’t go any longer, the music cuts to Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean. An impersonator does his best routine of the King of Pop as the crowd sings along to end the night.
The Finale Performance ending with Jai Ho
A woman on Stilts weaves through the crowd
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The show at Place-des-Arts was a sensation. To see these talented performers was stunning. Their strength and poise, talent and elegance were astounding.
It was the first annual Circus Festival and you can be sure that we will return for a second. It was spectacular.
Oh yes, maybe next time we will be able to see the Just For Laughs performers as well.
19 Responses to Montreal, a City of Festivals
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I love Cirque du Soleil and to be in the city where it originated, that’s just awesome! Looks like a spectacular time. Check out some travels I’ve ventured on and read about my preparations to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. AdventureTravelBlog.org
Have a great time climbing Kilimanjaro, we climbed it in 2008 and it was a fantastic time.
Wow – Montreal is one of my favorite cities, so I’ll have to be sure to get there during a festival – it looks like a feast for the senses and a total blast!
.-= Trisha´s last blog ..Increase Your Travel Writing Exposure and Readership with Syndication =-.
It is true, there seems to be some sort of festival every weekend in the summer. And the great thing about Montreal is that they don’t let the cold winter slow them down, they keep the festivals going all year long!
oh wow! very cool.. i love charlie Chaplin too
colors are so vivid and the grand finale looks truly grand.. i wonder when I will get to experience all this .. sigh 
LOL.. nice one D&D
.-= agentcikay´s last blog ..10 Ways to Experience the Malaysian Night Market =-.
Well, the great thing is that Cirque du Soleil is worldwide, maybe you will see them some day. And there are many other circus acts like this one we saw popping up all over. It is really worth it if one comes your way. We were totally blown away by the show. I loved it, and I don’t normally love theatre type stuff.
That looks like so much fun! I’m embarrassed that, as much as I love Montreal, and despite how close I am to the city, I still haven’t made it up there for Just For Laughs. What is wrong with me?! Great photos, btw.
.-= Gray´s last blog ..New York’s Pod Hotel- Budget-Friendly for the Solo Traveler =-.
Your not alone Gray. We never seem to go to any festivals or events in Toronto. We seem to head out of town on a weekend festival. It is funny how when traveling you tend to do so much more. We have missed some awesome events in Toronto and if it weren’t for meeting up with fellow travelers visiting Canada, we probably wouldn’t have gone to the festival in Montreal.
I haven’t been to Quebec since I was a teenager but it looks like you had an awesome time! I love the food there. I will have to catch Cirque de Soleil next time they are in Dallas because I won’t be making it to Canada any time soon.
.-= Jennifer Barry´s last blog ..Discoveries from a Southern US Road Trip =-.
That is the awesome thing about Cirque eh? It is worldwide now.
Ahh, Montreal, my favorite city in North America. Festivals all the time, though with all the times I’ve been there never managed to be there during one of these busy fun times.
Isn’t that the way it goes. That was our first festival after many visits ourselves. We never seem to go to festivals in our own town either, we always seem to be going out of town on big festival weekends, so it was nice to finally go to a festival in our own country (even though it wasn’t our own city.
We had an absolute blast with you guys. And how good are your pics!!??? Were we at the same festival? Must have something to do with our camera; clearly nothing to do with the ineptitude of the person behind it.
I still can’t get over what a great show they put on. It rocked. But your post now explains why. It wasn’t just a sideshow down a side street after all.
I also find it interesting that so many people say they love Montreal. If only summer lasted forever, I’d move here in a heartbeat.
.-= Globetrooper Todd´s last blog ..Fine Photography From Fellow Troopers =-.
Thanks Todd. Yes, it was definitely the camera
It explained a lot after we looked up the show on the Internet. I kept trying to find the circus stuff on the Just For Laughs Festival and then found about the circus festival. It was cool to learn that it wasn’t even cirque du soleil we were watching during that show, it was a blend of a bunch of different troops from around the world.
I am glad to see that many people love Montreal, there is something very cool about the city. It was fun watching Marcello’s reaction when people were talking French, I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it is awesome how everyone in Montreal flips between perfect English and perfect French in their conversations. They are exactly what people think of when picturing Canadians. If only we all were fluently bilingual like them!
That is the awesome thing about Cirque eh? It is worldwide now.
Montreal festivals begin in the month of January with its “Festival of Snow” Its customary for Montreal to have enough snowfalls during this month to make it possible for this to be a fun event for children and adults alike.
Other festivals held in the city are the Les Franco Folies Festival in late July and early August, dedicated to French music from around the world, the Celtic Festival in Montreal, in honor of music, dance, storytelling , art, food and drink traditional Celtic in mid-August and the Festival Nights Africa in mid-July, which promotes African music through concerts both outdoor and covered.
If you like festivals, their environments, and enjoy a unique course to become the envy of your friends do not let pass the opportunity to visit in Canada, Montreal, the real city of festivals for excellence. And it is precisely at this time, with the arrival of summer, when the burst of the same increases. We continued on the most important place to go and prepared to face the body. More: The Montreal Summer Festivals