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Ottawa Citizen

Dunlevy: What's Montreal's best summer music festival?

In the city of festivals, where there is a fest for seemingly every occasion and each day of the year, what is Montreal's best summer music festival? Which one represents our city in the best light, gives the most thrills, the biggest bang for your buck? Article content That last question is often redundant in a city where you can do a whole lotta festing for free. Which brings us to our first contender, the heavyweight champion, which built its name, reputation and world-famous appeal on its free shows: the Montreal International Jazz Festival, where you can walk the site on any given night and take in a globe-trotting array of music without spending a dime, or, if you're feeling festive, for the price of a beer and a mango on a stick. Fresh off its 45th edition, the jazz fest is hard to beat for the variety of music, the people-watching and its imprint on our city. Article content Article content Prior to the jazz fest is, of course, the French-language music fête Les Francos de Montréal, and the avant-garde offerings of Suoni Per Il Popolo, put on by the good folks at Casa del Popolo and La Sala Rossa. Article content Article content Hot on the heels of the jazz festival is the not-so-hidden gem Nuits d'Afrique. The annual celebration of African and Latin American sounds recently marked 39 years of body-moving rhythms. Nuits d'Afrique has grown in stature since it began setting up shop in the Quartier des spectacles, in part of the same state-of-the-art site as the jazz fest, which makes Montreal the envy of cities everywhere. Article content Article content The Gazette team is still coming down from the epic 18th edition of Osheaga, which attracted 142,000 young music fans over three days to see headliners The Killers, Tyler, the Creator and Olivia Rodrigo, plus some 85 other acts — including show-stealing Tampa rapper Doechii — at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Osheaga director Nick Farkas can't say enough about the festival site on Île Ste-Hélène, just a short métro ride from downtown. He calls it the best festival setting in North America — better than Coachella and Bonnaroo, to name just two. Article content Article content Osheaga promoter Evenko makes the most of the location. It just hosted the 10th edition of DJ and dance-music marathon ÎleSoniq there; and this coming weekend, it's boots and saddles time as the country-music hoedown Lasso ropes in headliners Bailey Zimmerman and Jelly Roll, as well as Friday favourites Shaboozey (who also played Osheaga) and Sheryl Crow. Yeehaw! Article content Article content There's a festival for everyone in Montreal. It's like a riff on the old Oprah car giveaway joke — you get a festival, and you get a festival … Article content And while I love them all, next week marks the start of one of my under-the-radar faves. Mutek, Montreal's festival of electronic music and digital art, is as hip, cool and cultured as anything our city has to offer. The cutting-edge event has received a boost from presenting free outdoor DJ sets around the Quartier des spectacles in recent years. But the buzz has reached another level since it settled its outdoor activities at the Esplanade Tranquille.