Montreal. The city of festivals. You can’t
walk more than ten minutes in any direction without encountering one of them.
Street art (Nuit Blanche), French music, the Montreal Grand Prix and Fringe
festivals, not to mention the International fireworks competition, are amongst the many on this
month. My friend lives in a 6th floor apartment overlooking Place
des Arts,
a plaza guaranteed to be packed on a Summer evening. Last year I was lucky
enough to see Stevie Wonder play at the opening of the Montreal International
Jazz Festival from here. Walk down a couple of blocks and you’ll pass a number
of packed stages with different local and international artists performing
their hits for free.
This is THE
place to be in summertime.
***
I have never been a big sports fan. But I
think I’m starting to get the hang of it. I met up with some mates at a sports
bar (Champs) down
St Laurent to watch the USA vs. England soccer match. “So, what makes a sports bar any
different from a regular bar?” I asked my friend. I passed a bunch of other
places playing the match, and they had beer too? I met with the answer as soon
as I walked into the room. Not to sound hippy, but it’s “all about the energy man!” The room was at max capacity and die-hard
fans filled the room with their flags, jerseys and synchronised roars with
every action. Of course, it also helped that they had about ten TVs and the
game projected on not only all of them but also a huge screen in the center.
People left and right of me ran
off lists of stats about previous cups, the teams and players. Everyone was an
expert or at least weren’t afraid to give their two cents. All while there were intermittent pauses
for cheering and chanting. There was also the obligatory bad mouthing of the other side’s teams
and I was rather amused at the aggression and ferocity with which the tables on
either side of us started arguing… It’s just football man… It’s football man!!!
