Fierté Montréal arrives in the Quartier des spectacles

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For the first time, Fierté Montréal is coming to a pair of iconic Quartier des Spectacles venues: Esplanade Tranquille and Place des Arts. The festival’s executive director, Simon Gamache, spoke to us about this year’s program, the new venues and his personal favourites.

By Philippe Couture

Growing Pride

“We’ve wanted to extend our territory to Esplanade Tranquille for a long time,” Gamache says. “The idea is to give more visibility to marginalized communities by bringing them to the heart of downtown. For us, this stage symbolizes growth and more inclusiveness, similar to what the First Peoples’ Festival achieved 20 years ago.”

And that’s not all! In addition to Esplanade Tranquille, two shows are on at Place des Arts: Lumière des Nations (August 1) and Ciseaux (August 5 to 7). The NFB is also part of the festivities, hosting screenings of activist short films (August 5) in collaboration with Image+Nation. “This expansion of our festival zone is, for us, an organic process based on the available opportunities and the desire to bring more cultural events to the downtown core,” he adds.

Intersectionnality is everything

Fierté Montréal has a clear programming philosophy: to represent the LGBTQ+ communities while reflecting Montreal’s diversity. “Intersections are very important,” Gamache stresses. That’s why the program showcases queer artists from racialized and Indigenous communities, offering bigger stages and more visibility to artists who often struggle to get exposure. Fierté Montréal’s aim is to be a space for discoverability.

In addition to artistic events, the festival is presenting a series of talks on LGBTQ+ issues, held in the Esplanade Tranquille pavilion and the Centre for Sustainable Development. The initiative is aimed at combining activism and culture by providing a space for thought and dialogue on questions of critical importance to queer communities.

From Bollywood to martial arts

As for the festival’s artistic programming, Gamache notes that “far from sticking to the more obvious aspects of queer culture, our program explores spaces less often associated with the LGBTQ+ world.” For example, this year’s festival features a martial arts evening (August 1) in Esplanade Tranquille, reflecting an impressive cultural diversity, and a Bloc Bollywood evening (August 2) with rising drag-scene stars Bijuriya and Kajol, DJ Deep and the Veils of Bollywood dance troupe.

Simon Gamache's personnal picks in the Quartier

Ciseaux, a play at Place des Arts (August 5 to 7) by the Pleurer Dans' Douche company, is a lesbian documentary cabaret that upends lesbophobic clichés and explores episodes in Montreal history through a queer prism, relying on contributions from Manon Massé and Judith Lessier, among others. Complete with stunning drag king numbers!

The free show by Maryline Leonard (part of a double bill with Lucky Love) on Esplanade Tranquille (August 3) should be great. We love this artist’s singing and rapping to irresistible pop-rock sounds. She’s truly one of a kind!