32 things to do in Montreal this Thanksgiving long weekend: October 5 to 8
As you set your sights to celebrating the harvest and be thankful for family and friends, we’ve compiled a list of great events to check out in Montreal this long weekend, October 5 to 8.
It’s been a great year, but we think you’ll find a few events to be even more thankful for this weekend. Check them out!
Friday, October 5
UNIQLO’s Free Clothes Giveaway
Shutterstock
UNIQLO is putting the ‘giving’ into Thanksgiving.
The Japanese casual wear retailer will be giving away thousands of HEATTECH items in downtown Montreal on Friday.
In total, 50,000 HEATTECH items will be given away in five cities across the country by the end of the fall, including Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
‘Heattech’ is an extra warm fabric that absorbs moisture generated by the body before converting it into heat. You have to follow @UNIQLOCanada to find out the exact location of this weekend’s giveaways.
When: Friday, October 5
Time: TBA
Where: TBA
Price: Free
First Fridays
The largest food truck festival in the province sums up its summer campaign on Friday.
The Olympic Stadium is known for a lot of things but First Fridays have got to be high on the list. The city’s food trucks gather at Olympic Stadium showcasing an array of mouthwatering local food allowing Montrealers to sample dishes from over 50 food trucks. You can expect to find everything from tacos and churros, to mac and cheese and lobster rolls.
It’s the First Friday, but also the last. The event is free to enter and food costs varying prices.
When: Friday, October 5
Time: 4 pm – 11 pm
Where: Olympic Stadium
Price: Free admission
Gardens of Light
Espace pour la vie
September brought the magical Gardens of Light Festival back and October brings the beauty.
The lantern festival includes a lighted path through the Botanical Garden’s three cultural gardens, the Chinese, Japanese and First Nations Gardens, all looking at nature from a different perspective.
When: Every day in October
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm (until 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays)
Where: Montreal’s Botanical Gardens
Price: $10.25 – $20.50
Waffle Bowl Week
To celebrate sweater weather, Frostbite Ice Cream has decided to bring back a summer-time classic. $4 will get you 3 scoops of the ice cream of your choice in a delicious waffle bowl.
Say goodbye to summer the only way you should.
When: Friday, October 5
Time: 11 am – 5 pm
Where: Frostbite Ice Cream, McConnell Engineering Building
Price: $4 per bowl
Wind Instrument
Quartier des Spectacles
Six 28-foot-high steel ventilation tubes, positioned vertically, produce melodies and soothing sounds by reacting to different variations in ambient sound and the contributions made to the public.
When: From now until October 8
Time: 11 am – 9 pm (to 11 pm from Thursday to Sunday)
Where: Metro Saint-Laurent
Price: Free
L’Off Jazz
The 19th edition of L’Off Jazz presents over 22 events taking place in 10 of the city’s most renowned venues.
The program offers a variety of seasoned jazz veterans, as well as the young, local jazz musicians from the Montreal scene.
When: From now until October 13
Time: Varies per selected show
Where: Varies per selected show
Price: $99 for an all-access pass, varies per individual show
Haunted Red Light Ghost Walk
Secret Montréal/Facebook
Local tour company, Secret Montreal, is giving guests a chance to learn about the city’s indecent past.
The tour is led by a professional actor and storyteller and the path leads to tales about the dark and lewd history of Montreal’s old Red Light District. Many of the sites are even said to be haunted.
When: Friday, October 5
Time: 8:30 pm – 10 pm
Where: 1219 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Price: $26.50, available online
J. Cole: KOD Tour
Jermaine Lamarr Cole is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Born on a military base in Germany but raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Cole initially gained recognition as a rapper following the release of his debut mixtape, The Come Up, in early 2007.
He’s performing at the Bell Centre on Friday.
When: Friday, October 5
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Bell Centre
Price: $72.80 – $179.80, available online
Pumpkinferno
Pumpkinferno/Ottawa Tourism
Pumpkinferno (besides having a great name) showcases over 7,000 handcrafted pumpkins which are lit up at night along a one-kilometre path set against a 19th-century backdrop. Some are individual pumpkins and some are fused together to make some outstanding art.
When: From now until October 14 ( and October 18 – 21 and 25 – 28 afterwards)
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Where: Upper Canada Village – County Road 2
Price: $12 – $16
Clerel and Only the Righteous at Honey Martin Pub
Clerel and Only the Righteous are local musicians who know how to bring it. They play a Motown style of music – very unique and mellow vibes. The group will be playing at Honey Martin Pub on Friday, which will be a perfect intimate setting for the type of music Clerel and co. bring.
When: Friday, October 5
When: Honey Martin is open from 3 pm – 3 am, the band starts at 10 pm – 2:30 am
Where: 5916 Sherbrooke Ouest
Price: Free to enter
My Space: An Exhibition
Local artists Sarah Bean and James Lynch are channelling early-2000s pop culture art with an exhibition from the days of Motorola Razr, The OC and Myspace’s Tom.
When: October 5 – 7
Time: 6 pm – 10 pm
Where: Gallery Parfois #1 – 4064 Boulevard St-Laurent
Price: Free
Comedy at the Art Loft
Comedy at the Art Loft/Facebook
Comedy at the Art Loft is the hottest underground comedy show in Montreal. It’s the city’s only weekly bilingual show and is run out of a private loft on Rue Saint Laurent and always packed with people. It feels like a college party, except a comedian is speaking into a microphone.
This week’s headliner is Franco Danger and the show is hosted by the very funny Quinn McMorrow, along with featured acts Julia Thomas, Al Fredo, Neema Nazeri, Wassim El-Mounzer and Audrée-Yann Dugas
There will be a DJ and snacks. BYOB and 420 friendly. Very 420 friendly.
When: Friday, October 5
Time: Doors open at 9 pm, show starts at 10:30 pm
Where: 4152 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Price: $10 at the door (cash only)
Saturday, October 6
La Ronde’s Fright Fest
rubenslimamoraes/Instagram
As if La Ronde’s wild rides aren’t scary enough, they’ve added some ghouls, zombies and witches to the park this month to give thrill-seekers some added jolts at Quebec’s biggest amusement park.
Fright Fest returns for select days in October, it’s a spooky time as costumed monsters take over the park at night.
The park will offer a wide variety of places to get your scare on including new haunted houses, scare zones, frightening mazes and themed rides.
When: October 6-8, 13, 14, 20,21, 27 and 28
Time: 11 am – 10 pm
Where: La Ronde – 22 Chemin Macdonald
Price: Visit the website for pricing
MAPP_MTL Map Festival
MAPP_MTL is a non-profit organization with the mission of promoting and developing the boundless potential of projection mapping.
In collaboration with Moment Factory (known for illuminating the Jacques Cartier Bridge), the festival features music, visual arts and tons of you guess it, mapping.
When: October 6 – 19
Time: Various times
Where: Various neighbourhoods around Montreal
Price: Free
The Canadian International Organ Competition
Every October, the Canadian International Organ Competition (CIOC) presents the world’s finest organs and organists. The festival promotes increasing awareness and interest in organ music.
When: October 6 and 7
Time: Various times
Where: Various venues
Price: Free
Tonga Lumina
Tonga Lumina/Moment Factory
Mont-Tremblant trail will be illuminated with light projections and mythical storytelling as giant-seekers must trek through a 1.5 km nocturnal hike to find the slumbering giant.
The adventure starts at the base of Mont-Tremblant. The chairlift transports its investigators to the “Twilight Portal” where a colourful lit path weaves its way through the woods to a series of mysterious checkpoints in pursuit of the giant.
When: From now until October 14
Time: Departures at 9 pm, 10 pm and 10:30 pm
Where: Mont Tremblant
Price: $11.99 – $27.99, kids under 5 get in for free
Festival de Nouveau Cinema
The Festival presents daring, one-of-a-kind films from here and abroad, ensuring their success as well as introducing audiences to auteur filmmakers.
Past guests include Atom Egoyan, Marc-André Forcier, Souleymane Cissé, Zacharias Kunuk, Denis Villeneuve, Guy Maddin, Léa Pool, Jim Jarmusch, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuaron, Wong Kar-wai, Wim Wenders, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Raymond Depardon.
When: From now until October 14
Time: Varies per selection
Where: Various locations per selection
Price: $12 general admission, $10 students and seniors, $8 children
Malefycia’s Zone 4
Malefycia/Facebook
Returning during the Halloween season for its 4th edition, Malefycia is a fuse between the traditional haunted house and interactive theatre.
The event uses custom-built scenarios with professional actors, props and settings to bring their guests’ worst nightmares into reality.
This year’s theme is called Zone 4 and it focuses on military experiments gone wrong and the event’s antagonist, as per the Malefycia website, is “the most dangerous of all demons: the man.”
In order to stay completely secret, you have to follow them on social media to get times and locations.
When: October 5-7
Time: TBA
Where: TBA
Price: $35 – $55, available online
Queen Extravaganza
A tribute band will be covering Queen’s greatest hits at the gorgeous MTELUS Theatre on Saturday.
When: Saturday, October 6
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Where: MTELUS
Price: $54 – $66, available online
UFC 229 – Khabib vs McGregor
UFC/Twitter
Taverne 1909, next to the Bell Centre, will be showing the UFC 228 fight between Conor McGregor (21-3-0) and Khabib Nurmagonedov (26-0-0) on what the bar claims is the biggest screen in the country.
Testing out their claim would be long and expensive, or, you could take their word for it.
When: Saturday, October 6
Time: 9 pm – 12:30 am
Where: 1909 Taverne Moderne, 1280 avenue des canadiens de Montreal
Price: Free admission
Ben Howard
Benjamin John “Ben” Howard is an English singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He self-released his debut EP Games in the Dark followed by two more EPs, These Waters and Old Pine.
He’ll be performing a mix of his old tunes while promoting his newest album Noonday Dream at the Bell Centre tonight.
When: Saturday, October 6
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Where: Bell Centre
Price: $51.25, available online
Sunday, October 7
Notre-Dame Basilica
A G Baxter (Shutterstock)
Celebrate Sunday mass at Montreal’s most viewed structure at 11 am and hear a 25-person choir accompanied by the organ. Or, take a walking tour of the basilica which is an absolutely gorgeous spectacle. It is filled with hundreds of wooden carvings, several religious statues, and gigantic stained glass windows.
When: Every day in October
Time: 8 am – 4:30 pm on weekdays, 8 am – 4 pm on Saturdays and 12:30 pm – 4 pm on Sundays (mass starts at 11 am)
Where: 110 Rue Notre Dame Ouest
Price: Free
Haunted Mountain
Haunted Montreal conducts Ghost Walks and carries out research into ghost sightings, paranormal activities, historic hauntings, unexplained mysteries, and strange legends from Mont Royal.
Join a tour conducted by professional actors and storytellers and learn about the mountain’s frightening past.
When: Saturday, October 7
Time: 8:30 pm
Where: Fletcher’s Field – Jeanne Mance Park
Price: $23
Parc Safari Zoo
@curlykay77
Get your animal fix by heading to Parc Safari, an easy 40-minute drive off the island. The park offers an optional Safari Adventure upon entering, you can drive up and see a variety of exotic animals from your car including zebras, ostriches, buffalo, llamas, and camels.
Inside the park, take a walk down the Forest Trail where you have an amazing vantage point view of monkeys, hyenas, and bears. Don’t forget the lions, but we didn’t have to tell you that.
When: Weekends in October
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Where: 280 Rang Roxham, Hemmingford
Price: Prices vary depending on age. Tickets available at the entrance or online
Disney on Ice
When: Saturday, October 7
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Where: Place Bell, 1950 rue Claude Gagne, Laval
Price: $20 – $88, available online
Voiles en Voiles
Voiles en Voiles/Facebook
Climb aboard life-size replicas of both royal and pirate ships from the 18th century in Montreal’s Old Port (how fitting), before the cold weather hits you. They are over 100 feet in length and range from two feet high for the young pirates to 35 feet for Peter Pan wannabes.
The obstacle course features 61 different activities between the Royal Ship and the Pirate Ship. Activities include zip lining, rock climbing, and bouncy castles.
When: From now until October 26
Time: 10 am – 6 pm
Where: Place des Vestiges, Old Port
Price: Online Prices vary depending on selected activities, tickets
The MTL Grand Open Round 5
The fifth round (of 10) features nine of Montreal’s funniest comedians battling out for their chance to win a $1000 grand prize.
Grand… prize… get it?
Sunday’s lineup includes Walter J. Lyng as the headliner and Troy Stark as the host. Featured acts, vying for the $1000 prize are Leighland Beckman, Viveth Kanagaratnam
Melina Maria Trimarchi, Jason Celin, Monica Hamburg, Andrew Cardazzi, Matthew Champ
and Pam Wener
When: Sunday, October 7
Time: Doors at 7:30 pm, show at 8 pm
Where: Mckibbin’s Irish Pub – 1426 Bishop Street
Price: $5
Monday, October 8
Barbie Exhibition
joshuajacobs81/Instagram
A day off from the workweek? Head over to the world’s largest permanent exhibit of Barbies is happening at Montreal’s Cours Mont-Royal. The upscale mall hosts over 1,000 entertainment industry Barbie dolls, all dressed by leading fashion houses.
When: Monday, October 8
Time: 10 am – 7 pm
Where: Cours Mont-Royal, 1445 Rue Peel
Price: Free
The World’s Smallest Open Mic
Local comedians Walter J Lyng and Vance Michel host what they call “the smallest open mic show in the world.” The acts aren’t small, the venue is.
Veteran comedians will either be testing out new bits or stand-up hopefuls will be getting on stage for the first time. 10 acts will be featured in total and organizers warn that only 20 seats are available.
When: Monday, October 8
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Where: Hurley’s Irish Pub, 1225 rue Crescent
Price: $5
McKibbin’s Pub Stumpers
Friends at the pub for trivia (Africa Studio/Shutterstock)
Test your trivia knowledge at McKibbin’s Irish Pub tonight. The pub’s trivia has five rounds, general knowledge multiple choice, short answer, a picture round, and a music round. The winner of each round receives free drinks or a round of shots. A round for a round – good trade.
When: Monday, October 8
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Where: 1426 Rue Bishop
Admission: Free to play (with purchase of a beverage)
London Pub’s Industry Night
If you want to keep the long weekend party going, head to London Pub as they offer industry nights on Mondays. It’s designed to offer inexpensive drinks to bar, pub and restaurant staff from around the city but it’s slowly morphed into drink deals for everybody. Grab a $4 single or a $3 shot of Jameson. Plus they have a free dart board and an in-house jukebox.
When: Monday, October 8
Time: 7 pm – 3 am
Where: 1337 Boulevard Maisonneuve Ouest
Admission: Free to enter, drink deals vary.
Markus Schulz
Anna Omelchenko/shutterstock
Markus Schulz is a German-American DJ and music producer based in Miami, Florida. Schulz will be spinning beats at Stereo tonight all night. Actually. The party starts at 2 am and goes until 10 am on Tuesday.
When: Monday, October 8
Time: 2 am – 10 am
Where: Stereo Montreal, 858 rue Ste. Catherine Est
Price: $60 – 65, available online
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