The Montreal Buzz had a blast at Les FrancoFolies de Montreal. We gave you 5 Sure Fest Bets (which were all on the money, btw), interviewed the legendary Alpha Blondy and even got a Festival Preview from a Franco-loving hybrid cartoon blogger. Francofolies is an amazing fest by itself, but as the first major festival held at Quartier des Spectacles, it also functions as a preview of what to expect at Jazz Fest and Just for Laughs. Based on what we saw, it’s going to be a wild summer in Montreal.

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(hip-hop nation) On this final weekend of international French music festival FrancoFolies, rap meets folk and pop meets metal. On June 17, prolific and highly entertaining Quebec rapper, Sir Pathétik gets the crowd going at Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent). The next night, also at Club Soda, hip-hop collective HHQC entertain with a message about community and collaboration– and some of the biggest names in Quebec rap. On the other end of the Franco spectrum, Montreal group Canailles plays bluegrass-zydeco-country outdoors on June 17, while the next day, heartthrob crooner Damien Robitaille engages the crowd with his retro R&B tunes and Dance Laury Dance put on the tightest of leather pants and rock out hair-metal style.

(main madness) Not only is this weekend the first big St-Laurent Street Fair weekend, but it’s also the final weekend of the Montreal Fringe Festival. Creative, comedic, dramatic, weird and sometimes pretty crazy shows can be seen for less than $10. And (free!) outdoors in Parc des Amériques (corner of St-Laurent and Rachel), Pop Montreal hosts local music makers from Thursday afternoon to Sunday night – Krista Mur, Pop Winds, Adam and the Amethysts, Sean Nicholas Savage and many others entertain in the midst of mayhem. And, for a little personal-is-political perspective, the nearby, feminist art gallery La Centrale hosts a different kind of street sale: Boom-Chix-A-Boom.

(pop goes film art) Big-shot Hollywood director Brian De Palma goes (or, rather, went) art-house psychedelic with his documentary The Responsive Eye and Other Op-Art Oddities, a journey through New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s 1965 exhibition of op-art, the first of its kind – screening June 18 at Blue Sunshine Psychotronic Film Centre (3660 St-Laurent, 3rd floor), 8 p.m. Art film also features at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal where the lights are dimmed for video work by Louis Philippe Eno.

(fine folk) In my experience, folk festivals are one of the most chilled-out festivals in the vast realm of fests. The Montreal Folk Festival, happening this weekend in the neighbourhood of St-Henri, doesn’t deviate from that laid-back vibe. John Sebastian, founder of The Lovin’ Spoonful (whose hit Do You Believe In Magic? will forever play the classic and/or soft rock stations) opens the festival with Emilie Clepper on June 16 at Georges Vanier Cultural Centre (2450 Workman), 8 p.m. On Friday, the festival hosts a free folk jam in partnership with Parks’ Canada’s Urban Camping event along the Lachine Canal. And all day Saturday and Sunday, folks get their folk on at Terrasse St-Ambroise, with non-stop music from Tricot Machine, Marc Berube and the Patriotic Few, David Francey and many more.

(pool dancing) For seven years, local choreographers have jumped into the deep end for Piss in the Pool, a one-of-a-kind, site-specific experimental dance event held in an empty indoor pool in the Mile End neighbourhood (nearby friendly restaurants/bars such as Sparrow, Magpie, Lawrence and Bu). See new, hip, gorgeous and strange, always engaging work by Nicolas Cantin, Manu Roque, Andrew Tay, The Choreographers, Sasha Kleinplatz with Radwan Moumneh, Leanne Dyer, Shannon Gillen and Annie Gagnon – happening at Bain St. Michel (5300 St.Dominique), June 16–18.

(audio-visual action) Montreal artist Gabriel Coutu-Dumont, who has produced video work for the Mutek festival, electronic musician Akufen and, as a co-owner of multimedia company Geodezik, developed multi-million-dollar stage shows for the likes of Cher and Tina Turner, opens his first solo exhibition this week. In Living in Different Worlds, he uses installation, photography, sculpture and video to make the visible audible and vice-versa, creating a science-fiction-like world by bending reality – opening June 16 at Galerie Donald Browne (#528–372 Ste-Catherine W.). Coutu-Dumont also unveils new video work at upcoming Jazz Festival show GRUBB: Gypsy Roma Urban Balkan Beats.

(Yiddish showtime) The Montreal International Yiddish Theatre Festival, is a great reason to mosey over to the neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges, where the Segal Centre for Performing Arts plays main host to the fest. All theatre performances and film screenings will be subtitled, so no knowledge of Yiddish is necessary – the festival guide even points out that lots of people who couldn’t speak Yiddish used to go to Yiddish theatre, because they knew they would see something exciting. There’s no doubt of that with over 150 artists and scholars from around the world, including Romania’s State Jewish Theatre of Bucharest, France’s Troim Teater, Poland’s Esther Rokhl and Ida Kaminska Jewish Theatre, plus Sunday’s Zumerfest in Mackenzie-King Park, with music, dancing and circus acts from the Jewish community as well as from the Chinese, Haitian and Filipino communities.

(summer music) Brian Wilson has changed a lot since his Beach Boy days – for one, he’s currently on a Gershwin kick – he’ll play those old tunes and classic Beach Boys at Place des Arts on June 17. The Suoni per Il Popolo festival keeps going strong on Friday with Colin Stetson blows his horns and our minds at La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent). On Saturday, Berlin’s Art Brut make outsider art-rock, ironically, popular, at Il Motore (179 Jean-Talon West). And on Sunday, Keith Morris of Black Flag brings back the old punk spirit – okay, it never really went away – to Foufones.

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Alpha Blondy was born Seydou Koné in Dimbokro, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and lived in Liberia and the United States before returning to the Côte d’Ivoire to begin his musical career. His first album, Jah Glory!, came out in 1983 and was an immediate success at home and across Europe. His fans branded him the “Bob Marley of Africa” and, like Marley, he is political and deeply spiritual. He has become a true humanitarian, having been appointed the United Nations Ambassador of Peace for Côte d’Ivoire in 2005. If his FrancoFolies show with his amazing band, le Solar System, is half as uplifting as the chat we had, it might very well be not only one of the highlights of this year’s Francos, but of the entire Montreal festival schedule.

Montreal Buzz: You’ve played to French audiences all over the world. Do you notice a difference in the crowds?

Alpha Blondy: As far I’m concerned, people are people, whether they are from Africa or Canada, whether their French is from Montreal or their French is from Africa. We are all part of the same musical cradle.

Montreal Buzz: Your songs are very political, but there’s some humour in there too…

Alpha Blondy: Well I try- sometimes my jokes only make me laugh. I try to laugh. But the topics are pretty serious when you talk about the desperate social situations of the people, military coups, there’s nothing funny about that. What is very important, most important, is the spiritual dimension. You cannot talk about people without that.

Montreal Buzz: You have sung and spoke out about everything from apartheid to police brutality. To you, what is the common thread in these issues?

Alpha Blondy: I think politicians of the worlds, they have forgotten the essential thing- that we are all human. They need to rethink political strategy, the human needs to be put at the centre. Politicians, they are given too much room. They need to be reminded that money is made for the people, money is not the important thing, the people are.

Montreal Buzz: How does that idea relate to your music? What role do you want your music to play?

Alpha Blondy: Rock, reggae, salsa music, music is music. We might be different, but music is the language we all have in common. Because people come for positive vibes, they don’t come to see my ugly face (laughs). That’s what fills them with hope, that’s what makes them feel happy. It is therapy for the people’s minds.

Alpha Blondy et le Solar System, June 15, 2011, Métropolis

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I love my culture tellement that my favourite festival is le FrancoFolies de Montreal! Everything Francais, musique and parfait! (Not the dessert, that’s how we say “perfect” en Francais.) This year it takes the place June 9 to June 18, 2011. Tellement dozens of my favourite singers will be performing during FrancoFolies!

Like la belle Catherine Ringer, Mara Tremblay and l’amazing Alpha Blondy! But also very much ERIC LAPOINTE avec l’Orchestre symphonique de Montreal! What une excellente way to celebrate 23 years!

The entire new series of indoor events at Place des Arts called Spectacles Concepts Air Transat will be absolutely fou as well! I will get my dance on when Stromea takes the stage for his superhit Alors on danse and other hits from his album, Cheese, because obviously, J’adore le fromage! Then I will slow down jus a leetle when Mara Tremblay sings at L’Astral on June 10 and 11. Elle is just tros cute! J’adore!

Ok…, full disclosure, I’m not actually French, I’m sorry for the bad accent. But my girlfriend is French and I love French music and culture, which is why I’m so obsessed with this fest. I will for sure be taking her to the FrancoFolies dinner cruises, which are full of incredible music in one of Montreal’s most unique venues: le Bateau Mouche! Departing from le Quay Jacques-Cartier in the Old Port, it will feature food from the amazing chef Louis-Francois Marcotte! What a night that will be. What a festival of fun the FrancoFolies will be!

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Since 1989, when the first FrancoFolies was founded by the brains behind France’s Francofolies de La Rochelle and Montreal’s Jazz Fest organizers, bigger crowds every year have gathered to chill out, dance and party with 200+ French acts from all over the world and right here in Montreal.

With a jam-packed program, it’s hard to make up your mind, so here are five sure bets for Francofile-favouring fans of FrancoFolies 2011…

Local flavour: Les Breastfeeders, one of Quebec’s most beloved contemporary rock bands, sing all in French but have a huge English fan base as well. They played at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the video above was a Pitchfork video of the day and they’ve been voted The Montreal Mirror’s best local act. They even once opened for the New York Dolls.

Jah Glory: Alpha Blondy has been one of the biggest names on the reggae scene since the early ‘80s. After an early career in his native Ivory Coast, he migrated to Paris where he built his career by unifying a European and African fan base. In 2005, he was declared UN Ambassador for Peace, and his humanitarian work is almost as well-known as his smoldering stage presence.

Icons: Algerian/French chansonnier Etienne Daho and cinema icon Jeanne Moreau, share the stage for a dramatic, musical reading of Jean Genet’s The Condemned Man. Genet’s first novel, written in prison, is about a killer, a guillotine and gay prison fantasies. The text is read by Moreau, and sung by Daho, who also did the arrangements.

French rap: Loco Locass are a popular, actually probably the most popular, of all Montreal hip-hop acts: Political, danceable, it’s party central every time they take the stage.

The porno: Erotique PQ is quite possibly the best idea the FrancoFolies ever had. A collective of 10 musicians and a VJ take the stage to reinterpret pieces form the soundtracks of classic 60s and 70s Quebecois porno films: Orgiastic psychedelic funk of the highest order.

Bon Spectacle, as the French say.

Guest Blogger: Melora Koepke

A

THE DETAILS

Les FrancoFolies de Montreal, June 9 to June 18, 2011

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