Tag: Lights

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Montreal en Lumière’s 2023 festival plans

People dancing near the DJ booth at Montreal en Lumière near Place des Arts. Photo by Dalia Nardolillo/ THE CONCORDIAN

Are you going to go out and visit?

This year’s edition of the Montreal en Lumière festival is back bigger than ever. The festival is on from Feb. 16 until March 5.

The Concordian had the chance to sit down with Julie Martel, the director of the gastronomic programming of the festival. Martel has been organizing the festival’s food for the last five years.

“It’s an important edition of the festival, because it marks the full return of the program outside of the pandemic context,” Martel said. Due to previous restrictions that were in effect at last year’s festival, the organizers were limited in programming. Most had to get a little creative with how they put it together.

“This means we are welcoming back international chefs. We have 40 international guests — not only chefs but winemakers from all over the world.”

Martel emphasized that one of the highlights of the gastronomy part of the festival was Indigenous cooking, which was introduced for the first time in last year’s edition of the festival. 

“We have planned for a full day of for the Indigenous cooking on Feb. 25 at Quartier Gourmand. This year also marks the return of the Quartier Gourmand, which is a free space that people can visit in Place des Arts,” Martel said.

The free space is very important to the festival because it is a way to democratize local food. Another interesting aspect of the Quartier Gourmand is that on specific days, there will be different themes. For example, one of the themes that will be covered is sustainable food. Martel wants to make that information available to all the guests of the festival.

“At Quartier Gourmand, it’s always free tastings and visitors can meet with the local chefs and producers,” Martel said.

Quartier Gourmand at Montreal en Lumière near Place des Arts. Photo by Dalia Nardolillo/THE CONCORDIAN

Martel is very proud of the fact that the Quartier Gourmand is free for visitors. She recognizes that even though the festival has 40 participating restaurants, it might not be affordable for everyone.

If the food part of the festival doesn’t pique your interest, Maurin Auxéméry, the director of the musical programming of the festival, promises some surprises for this year. 

“Music is back this year, and last year due to COVID we didn’t have any special shows,” Auxéméry explained.

He emphasized that in this year’s edition of the festival there will be two types of programming, the outdoor sites and the indoor shows.

The outdoor sites around Place des Festivals and Quartier des Spectacles will have DJs every night that play a different kind of music. The first nights will debut Latin music while towards the end of the festival there will be more French music.

The highlight of the musical programming is the indoor shows which includes all the live performances.

“I can’t remember the amount of indoor shows that we have right off of the top of my head but I do know that we have three nights at the Wilfrid-Pelletier concert hall with a symphony show,” Auxéméry said. 

There is absolutely no excuse for boredom for this upcoming March break. Montreal en Lumière packs a punch in terms of programming this year. For more information please click on this link.

Outdoor site at Montreal en Lumière near Place des Arts. Photo by Dalia Nardolillo/THE CONCORDIAN

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Community

Canadian Pacific Railway’s Holiday Train stopped in Montreal on Nov. 27

Canadian Pacific's Holiday Train in Montreal West on November 27. Dalia Nardolillo/The Concordian

Montrealers welcomed the holiday season with the CP Holiday Train.

After a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Pacific (CP) Holiday Train made its stop in Montreal-West. Hundreds of people were in attendance waiting for its arrival.

The train started its tour on Nov. 23 in Maine. The Holiday Train will bring holiday cheer to six Canadian provinces and eight states around the United States.

Did you know that the purpose of the Holiday Train is to raise awareness about food insecurity across Canada and the United States? The train also raises the importance of being involved in your local community.

On Sunday, when the Holiday Train was scheduled to arrive in the city, it was a dark and rainy night. However, no one in attendance seemed to care as people were happy to wait to get dazzled by the lights of the Holiday Train.

The train was scheduled to arrive at 6:45 p.m. but ended up making an appearance shortly after 7 in Montreal-West. As soon as the train arrived, a Christmas concert played out of one of the train cars.

The rain didn’t stop the crowd from taking pictures in front of the train, from a safe distance of course.

Each train car was adorned with a different decorative festive design, which included traditional decorations of snowmen and Santa Claus. However, what was truly interesting was that one of the train cars had a hockey theme. As the lights flickered, the message “She shoots, she scores!” appeared. 

After the free Christmas concert ended, the train made its way to its second stop in Beaconsfield.

According to CP’s website, this year will mark CP’s 24th year of collecting food for different food banks all across Canada and the United States. CP began its initiative back in 1999 and since then has raised more than $21 million and donated more than five million pounds of food. 

Onlookers were welcome to bring non-perishable food to donate while the train was stopped in the area. Various Quebec organizations were involved with the event, one of them being Moisson Montreal. They have been involved with the event for the past 20 years.

The train will also make stops in Calgary on Dec. 11, and a final show in Port Coquitlam, B.C., on Dec. 18.

If you happen to attend one of the CP Holiday Train events, please remember to bring along a food donation. In this holiday season, we need to help one another and come together as a community.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CP HOLIDAY TRAIN. BY DALIA NARDOLILLO/THE CONCORDIAN

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Community

Orange you pumped for Halloween?

Dog roaming at Citrouilleville. DALIA NARDOLILLO/ The Concordian

Citrouilleville, a pumpkin village located one hour away from Montreal.

For all you fall fanatics out there, I have a fall activity that is a one hour drive from Montreal. 

Citrouilleville credits itself to be ”the most original pumpkin village in Quebec.” 

It is a little pumpkin village that is located in Saint-Zotique at the Ferme Benoit Vernier. 

This pumpkin village features an abundance of activities. Citrouilleville is not only family friendly but dog friendly as well! 

The creators of the pumpkin village got extremely creative and built various houses made out of pumpkins, and many vintage cars that you can pose with. 

These vintage cars include a Volkswagen beetle, a Volkswagen bus and a Dodge pickup truck.

For the lovers out there, they’ve also set up a kissing booth.

Around the farm you can get whisked away in a tractor ride, or you can choose to get lost in the cornfield maze that they have set up.

On weekends, Citrouilleville has a lot of activities set up for kids. The staff put on performances for kids at different times on Saturdays and Sundays, and children can also indulge in facepainting and carnival games offered on-site. 

The other nice thing about Citrouilleville is that they offer $1 squashes sold on-site as well as lots of different sizes of pumpkins. They also sell a variety of handmade goods like local honey and handmade jewelry. 

There are snacks offered if you want to grab a bite to eat, including freshly popped popcorn (the smell wafts through the farm and honestly makes you salivate), corn on the cob, etc.

If you choose to visit the site at night, you will be dazzled by the lights that line the paths around the farm.

Citrouilleville is open on Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Sundays, they are open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Admission is $17.50 for adults. Visitors can buy their tickets online and on-site. 

Aside from weekends, they are exclusively open on Thanksgiving, Oct. 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as on Halloween, from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DALIA NARDOLILLO/The Concordian

Light up your night with Illumi

Illumi’s third installation has returned back to Laval

The third installation of Illumi is back and better than ever. Being a Laval native, I have visited Illumi for the past three years, ever since it began back in 2019.  Illumi is the biggest village of lights in all of North America, according to a blog published by Narcity. This year, I was truly impressed with all the new light installations and upgrades. With the COVID-19 restrictions easing up here in Quebec, they came back bigger and stronger.

Back when Illumi started in 2019, I visited with my family and we did the walking tour of the exhibit which felt as if I walked into a fairytale land. The twinkling lights were magical and got me into the Christmas spirit. However, in the back of my mind it reminded me of Jardin botanique’s Jardins de Lumière, which I also try to attend yearly. Overall, I felt that the first year of Illumi was a nice way to start the holiday season.

When I visited in 2020, I felt like I was ripped off, to be blunt. I paid close to $60 for my sister and I to see Illumi from the car. The whole drive didn’t even last the entire hour and I felt they had reused a lot of the installations and lights that I saw in the first year.

However, Illumi had promoted themselves pretty ferociously around Laval and Montreal, so I was very much enticed to return for the third consecutive year, which was now a walking edition. I hoped that the disappointment from last year wouldn’t happen again given that more than 80 percent of the light structure is new, according to Illumi’s website.

This year’s edition of Illumi allowed visitors to either do the exhibit from the car or on-foot experience. I truly felt that was a great option, even with the COVID-19 restrictions easing up, as there are still people that feel uneasy around others.

Additionally, if you would like to enter Illumi by foot this year, you will have to show proof of vaccination in order to enter. While going out to movie theaters and concerts is a no-go for people that are not vaccinated, Illumi serves as an option as something to go out, as a vaccination passport is not required for the car version of Illumi.

The first light installment that you are greeted with when you first enter is the new land of the vegetables, featuring a bunch of fruits and vegetables with cute faces on them. I thought this first part of the exhibit was cute, but it didn’t necessarily take my breath away.

I feel that the highlight of the exhibit and also a new addition to Illumi is definitely the land of the dinosaurs. I highly suggest taking your kids here if they’re fans of Jurassic World, as a walk through the park will give them a taste of what it’s really like to be walking among the giants. All the dinosaurs and other animals move, and there’s a massive mammoth which reminded me of Manny from the Ice Age movies. While looking around at this exhibit, I was able to talk to a visitor named Anthony Matano. He gave me his first hand experience, saying, “Having gone in blind, I was pleasantly surprised by the unique and original light installations that wouldn’t typically be expected at a Christmas-themed light exhibit. My favourite section was the dinosaur world simply due to its originality, it made me feel like I was in a real life Jurassic Park.”

Another thing I wanted to add was that, while I was walking through the exhibit I saw the cars passing on the other side of the exhibit. There were even stop signs and crossing guards for people to cross the different paths at Illumi.

Without spoiling too much, I strongly urge everyone to come to Laval and visit Illumi. This year’s edition will definitely be worth the drive and the smiles on your loved one’s faces.

 

Photos by Dalia Nardolillo

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Music

PHOTO GALLERY: Allan Rayman at MTelus

Photo by Cecilia Piga

Allan Rayman at MTelus on November 29th, 2019.

Photos by Cecilia Piga

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Arts

A night at the museum, Montreal-style

With DJs, funky lights and catering, Chiaroscuro completely changed the mood and tone of the MMFA

Typically, you don’t get to admire contemporary artwork while nibbling on a macaron and sipping a specially-made cocktail. But at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) latest series of events, that’s exactly what you get to do.

On Friday, Oct. 14, the MMFA underwent a drastic transformation from 7 p.m. until midnight for its first Chiaroscuro night. A cultural event designed to attract a younger art-loving audience, the event allowed new and seasoned art enthusiasts to enjoy the museum and its exhibitions, literally in a new light.

Chiaroscuro is a 17th century Italian art term used to describe the play of shadow and light in paintings or drawings. This term perfectly summed up the décor at the museum, as green and blue lights bathed museum attendees in their glow, totally changing the look of the modern architecture of the space. Designed for an 18 to 30-year-old crowd, the event’s aim was to provide a new type of experience in the familiar setting of the museum.

The event, which took place on three floors of the museum, completely altered the feel and mood of the space for the evening. This isn’t the kind of artistic or cultural event that you come to stroking your chin, trying to find the message in the medium. Rather, it’s the kind of event where you gather your friends and head to the museum for a unique experience, which includes music as well as food and specialty drinks.

Bars and food stations were spread out over the three-floor event space, offering sumptuous snacks and cocktails. Photo by Tiffany Lafleur

With different types of catering available, visitors had the choice between popcorn, cake pops, poutine and macarons. Each floor also had a bar, serving three specialty drinks crafted for the evening. The cocktails, mixed by Monsieur Cocktail, a Montreal-based team of mixologists, were inspired by the theme of Chiaroscuro and coyly named the drinks after artists or artworks, like the Shadow of Rodin and the Reflection of the Thinker.

Along with the sumptuous food, there were many musical elements as well. Two DJs spent the evening spinning tunes, giving the museum a lounge-type feel where everyone could mix and mingle between visiting exhibitions.

In addition to the DJs, there were a few other unique musical elements to the soirée. An opera singer drew a large crowd near the stairs of the second floor with her powerful and eloquent performance, as she sang along with the DJs tunes. This demonstration from the Atelier lyrique of the Montreal Opera, an artist-in-residence program for Canadian opera singers and pianist-vocal coaches, is just one example of how Chiaroscuro night offered attendees a completely different experience from a typical museum visit.

As if the music, lighting, food and cocktails weren’t enough to entertain, there were also a few smaller events taking place during the main event.

On the third floor, the mapping collective MAPP MTL projected their work on a wall. Attendees were invited to sit or lie down on the floor to better see the projection of lines and dots intersecting and chasing each other. The hypnotic work, projected in a dark room, pulled you in with its calming, yet engaging movements across the wall. Also on the third floor was a painting activity, where attendees were invited to use fluorescent paint in a room lit only by a black light. These paintings were then assembled into a mural containing the works of everyone who participated.

MAPP MTL used one of the rooms to project their artwork on the wall, while viewers sat on the ground to admire the work. Photos by Tiffany Lafleur

Overall, the strength of the event was in remapping and altering the mood and feel of a museum that most Montrealers are familiar with. These changes let seasoned museum-goers interact in a new way in a familiar space, while giving enough sensory stimulation to those who don’t really consider themselves the museum type.

For those intrigued by cultural events, or even the concept of a cultural event, Chiaroscuro is a must-see. With two more such events planned in the coming year, it will be interesting to see how the MMFA makes each event stand out in its own unique way.  It would be fascinating, in future events, for the museum to fully embrace the chiaroscuro spirit and play with light and sound in the galleries themselves, thus offering attendees not only a different feel to the museum, but a new perspective to artwork they might be familiar with as well.

The dates for the following two events have not yet been released, but keep checking their website for more information at www.mbam.qc.ca.

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Arts

Flowers and lights come together to make a dreamland

Photo by Andre Vandal

The Botanical Gardens dresses in lights for Montreal’s annual Gardens of Lights classic

The Chinese’s Garden scenery is composed of countless lanterns coming straight from Shanghai. By Andre Vandal on Flickr

Summer is ending, winter is coming, and our collective interest in outdoorsy activities is diminishing slowly but steadily.  To end this season of terrace-drinking, park-reading and sunny day moments, the Botanical Gardens dressed itself up to get you out of your comfy and warm cocoon one last time before Montreal solemnly puts its white coat on. From Sept. 9 to Nov. 2, Botanical Gardens’ Gardens of Lights is taking place. A new lighting design in the Japanese Garden pleasantly complements the annual autumnal classic of “The Magic of Lanterns” happening in the Chinese Garden.

One part of the nocturnal exhibit is the yearly lighting of the Chinese Garden. With its array of lantern-like sculptures coming straight from Shanghai, the garden gives to its visitors the impression of being in a dream. The main scenery offered to sightseers portrays a scene of epic proportion. This overwhelming panoramic is probably one of the best-known exhibits of this its that Montreal has to offer, and for good reason.

The brand-new exhibit in the Japanese Garden differs greatly from the Chinese Garden. As some may expect, the Japanese Garden instead gives the public a relaxing place where being zen is highly recommended. To achieve that state of mind so rare to most urbanites in today’s world, the garden offers a variety of scenes. First of all, a flock of beautifully crafted paper birds welcomes you into the Japanese Garden. Following the directions given by those little origami angels, the visitors will get into what is an ordinary patch of forest by day, but becomes a still-life theater by night. With music giving the tone to a programmed light show and trees as the main protagonists, this particular exhibit gives the audience a glimpse of a world in which trees can tell their stories. A little further down the road, the visitors will find a resting point installed specifically for people in need of a simple but beautiful scenery to forget about their everyday responsibilities. You just sit on the wooden bench, listen to the soothing sound of the waterfall and look at the chromatic poetry taking place in front of you.

Coming out of a short but enjoyable stroll in the gardens, one will find themselves thinking about how singular this nature-filled haven actually stands in the center of Montreal. So few places offer this kind of retreat of all the noise and commotion of the city’s heavily populated urban area. But really, at this time of the year the Botanical Gardens become truly more than just a park-like milieu. At dusk, it becomes a labyrinth in which you can wander and lose track of time; a place that helps you craft one of those rare unforgettable moments; a fiction-like setting just there for you to fall in love with. The one negative thing about this event is that, just like the flowers acting as the canvas of the Gardens of Lights, this beautiful harmony of light and nature will fade away soon.  Everyone should grab this chance of simply dreaming a little in those phantasmagoric gardens before we get buried in snow.

Photo by Andre Vandal

Botanical Gardens’ Gardens of Light event takes place until Nov. 2. For more information, go visit the Botanical Gardens’ website: calendrier.espacepourlavie.ca/gardens-of-light

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