Les FrancoFolies de Montréal
Encyclopedia
Downtown Montreal
Downtown Montreal is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is nearly enitirely located at the southern most slope of Mount Royal and is approximately bounded by Sherbrooke Street to the north, Papineau Avenue to the east, Guy Street or until Shaughnessy Village to the west,...
Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, featuring over 1,000 French-language performers from all over the world, as well as attracting over 500,000 visitors.
Many of the performances are free to the public and are held on various stages in and around the Place des Arts
Place des Arts
right|frame|View of the Place des Arts esplanade. The Musée d'art contemporain is on the left; behind it is the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, with the Théâtre Maisonneuve on the rightPlace des Arts is a major performing arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
section of Montreal's "Centre-ville." Other performances are held at nearby theaters and require that tickets to be purchased to attend.
In contrast to the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, also held during the summer months, the FrancoFolies focuses on popular music performed chiefly in the French language or by performers from Francophone countries. Musical styles such as rock, pop, chanson, hip-hop, rai, folk, punk, and many others are featured during the festival's nearly two-week run.
The festival was established in 1989 by:
- Jean-Louis Foulquier the founder of Francofolies de La Rochelle
- Alain Simard, founder of Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM)
- Guy Latraverse.
Having run for more than 20 years, the FrancoFolies festival is considered to be the largest musical extravaganza in the French-speaking world.
The festival normally runs from late July to early August each year. However, the 22nd edition of the festival was moved to an earlier date, June 10-19, 2010. This change of date will allow more performers from France to attend the festival and will allow the FrancoFolies to "get a jump start" on Montreal's busy summer festival season.