(light entertainment) The winter nights light even brighter during the 14th Montréal en Lumière, a festival of food, free outdoor activities (a ferris wheel, an ice slide and more!), music, theatre and dance shows, and other entertainment. Gourmet cuisine comes in all shapes and sizes at the festival, from multi-course meals to cheese samplings – see our Top 5 food picks for ideas. Tango enthusiasts and the curious are in for a treat at tango-meets-cabaret-meets-circus show and milonga La Pista Tango, the art of singer Tonny Bennett is on display, French music star -M- plays February 22, theatre-dance show The Humanity Project provokes deep thoughts, Haitian-born Québécois artist Marie-Josée Lord sings February 25, singer and pianist Diana Krall entrances in a solo concert on February 26, and none other than The Zombies rock out on February 28.

(circus & butterflies) Add far more than a dash of bright colour to snowy days at the 34th Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain, a internationally touring circus show featuring some of the top circus acts from the Paris-based competition of the same name, including acrobats, trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, contortionists and more, to March 2 at La Tohu. More brightness awaits at the Butterflies Go Free exhibition at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, where 2000 butterflies and moths from around the world take up residence until the end of April. Or step outside at the Old Port to see the astounding athlethics involved in the Ice Canoe Races on February 23.

(dance & theatre) For the first time in Canada, the National Ballet of China performs Raise the Red Lantern, a classical Western ballet interpretation of Zhang Yimou’s dramatic film of the same name – the director even added his creative voice to the production by writing the libretto, designing the lighting and signing the stage direction – on stage February 22-24 at Place des Arts, presented by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. Danse Danse presents Corps de Walk, a thoroughly cool, contemporary-culture show (in music, movement and style) by choreographers Gai Behar and Sharon Eyal and 12 dancers of The Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance, February 28 and March 1-2 at Place des Arts.

(travel with art) Take a different kind of walk around downtown’s happening Quartier des Spectacles to the tune of Luminothérapie: use your iPhone or mp3 player to interact with art project Le jour des 8 soleils by artist Pascal Grandmaison who tells a story through video projects video projections on buildings in the area, from Berri-UQAM metro station to Place des Festivals and points in between. Indoors, visit Peru through its art, history and culture, presented in stunning detail at the MMFA’s Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and Moon. The Musee d’art Contemporain features intriguing large-scale colour photography by celebrated photographer Lynne Cohen and an immersive, mysterious multi-room installation called Uraniborg, by French multidisciplinary artist Laurent Grasso.

(live music) Old Montreal cultural hub the PHI Centre hosts Thus: Owls on Friday, February 22 and follows that up on Saturday, February 23 with amazing Haiti fundraiser party Kanaval Kanape, with performances by Arcade Fire with Haitian group Doody & Kami and a dancetastic afterparty – in partnership with Black History Month Montreal. Also on Friday, ska-rock the night away with The Planet Smashers at Club Soda, while Bosnian Rainbows play Cabaret du Mile End and the good folks at Passovah Productions throw a party with Young Galaxy, Valleys and many more (plus doughnuts from Chez Boris!) at Il Motore. On Saturday night, dance to the electronic music of Bordello, Vosper and Jealous Lovers at the SAT. On Sunday, the MSO hosts conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky and pianist Viktoria Postnikova, while The Montreal New Music International Festival showcases some of the best in new classical and experimental works. On February 25, feel the Irish spirit with Celtic Woman, February 25 at Place des Arts. On February 26, indie-experimental-rock artist Eels  is at Theatre Corona, and on February 27, Swedish House Mafia makes the Bell Centre thump.

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Take a break in Montreal this week with days dedicated to amazingly affordable fine food, high-flying and inspiring on-stage entertainment, international film and art, family-friendly sounds of science, and lots of great live music…

(fantastic food) The food-centric week begins on Friday with an array of gourmet food trucks – from tacos to crepes to hamburgers – set up for your culinary pleasure at Montreal’s Olympic Park. For sit-down meals, check out Montreal’s TASTE MTL Restaurant Week, ongoing to November 11, with gourmet prix-fixe menus – from $19 to $39 – at some of Montreal’s best fine-dining restaurants. Choose by cuisine or discover new parts of the city by choosing by neighbourhood: spend an evening in Old Montreal, the next one at a restaurant downtown, in the Plateau or Mile End, Outremont, the Village or Griffintown.

(life on film) Film festival season continues in Montreal with the French-language – English subtitles usually included – Cinémania, to November 11, with features, shorts, retrospectives (including an extensive one on Sandrine Bonnaire’s films), presentations and Q&A sessions, and more. Among the many films, see Cinémania’s opener, an official Cannes competitor, Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts in a story of a former boxer, his son and a woman coming to terms with a life-altering disability. And on November 7, doc film fest RIDM begins its reign of real life representations, with films from around the world, including Peter Mettler’s The End of Time, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mekong Hotel, a series of 15 favourite docs chosen by 15 members of the film community, and much more.

(circus & theatre) Circus shows in Montreal are always an adventure of some kind, but that adventure is guaranteed to be thrilling and heartfelt with inventive and talented Montreal-based international circus troupe 7 Doigts de la Main – their latest show, Séquence 8, is chock full of stunning acrobatics and ensemble work, big laughs, great music and a love of circus arts and audience connection, at La Tohu circus centre to November 17. In theatre, Black Theatre Workshop extends its successful run of Harlem Duet, an award-winning play that spans Shakespeare’s Othello and the sentiments of Martin Luther King in a story of the struggle to gain true equality in North America. And Persephone Productions presents Shakespeare’s classic of classics Hamlet at the Calixa Lavallée Théâtre in Parc Lafontaine, November 1-10.

(beautiful bodies) International rock star choreographer Hofesh Shechter’s Political Mother is powerful, beautiful and moving – for dance fans or simply for anyone looking for a great show. With 10 extremely talented dancers and 7 musicians live on stage, Political Mother tells a story of hope in the face of tyranny – at Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts, November 1-3. In the same performative vein of dance-meets-music-meets-storytelling, Montreal choreographer Frédérick Gravel debuts his Usually Beauty Fails, November 7-10 and 14-17 at Cinquième Salle.

(east & west) The 13th Arab World Festival of Montreal entertains and informs, highlighting links between Arabic and Western cultures through music, performance, film, art and talks, to November 10. On Friday November 3, hear famed pianist Abdel Rahman El Bacha play works from Bach to Prokofiev and more, at Cinquième Salle. On November 4, hear the music of Algeria’s Hamdi Benani, at the Corona Theatre, while Zohreh Jooya and her Afghan dance ensemble captivate in a North American premier at Cinquième Salle at Place Des Arts, and up in the neighbourhood of Mile End at the beautiful Rialto Theatre, spend the evening at Goodbye To The Duels, Hello To The Duets, a concert for peace, featuring Moroccan singers Abderahim Souiri and Laila Gouchi. See the festival’s program online for full details and more.

(educational entertainment) The Montreal Science Centre gets kids and adults really listening with new exhibition Musik: From Sound to Emotion, a zone where science, creativity and entertainment meet. Learn how music affects different parts of the brain, how we experience music physically and emotionally, and get a chance to make music of your very own in the exhibition’s high-tech music lab. The exhibition is based on input from numerous scientists at Montreal universities as well as from musicians, including  Montreal-based pop-punk band Simple Plan.

(joys of music) Friday night begins a week of great music with Montreal’s Esmerine, celebrating 15 years of Constellation Records, at the Musee d’art contemporain. On the other end of the show spectrum is the laser-light-show spectacular The Australian Pink Floyd Show at the Bell Centre, while Designer Drugs and Beat Market electro-rock the SAT. Saturday night cranks the decibel level with Sonar Festival on Tour, featuring Die Antwoord, Azari & III, Seth Troxler, and  more dance-worthy acts, at Metropolis. Monday night sees Martha Wainwright pouring her heart out at the Corona Theatre, the sweet west-coast pop-rock sounds of Grass Widow at Il Motore, and a late night of dancing to the great Richie Hawtin, Loco Dice and more at the SAT. The week turns rock retro with Journey on November 5 and ZZ Top November 7, both at the Bell Centre. And Thursday night rules as Howl! Arts brings the great D’bi Young and Kalmunity Vibe Collective to Sala Rossa and NYC’s Yeasayer rocks Cabaret du Mile End.

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(arty open house) Three days of free arts and culture happenings are in store at the 16th edition of Journées de la Culture, September 28-30, at museums, galleries, performance venues and even out in the streets. Roam the Quartiers des Spectacles to see art in action at Saturday afternoon’s Marathon of Arts, and catch performances, go on guided tours, participate in workshops, learn to dance or sing throughout the weekend. Search the full schedule for family activities, visual art, dance, circus, theatre and more downtown and in neighhourhoods around the city.

(worldly art) Two new shows open at the MACM on October 4: a retrospective of famed Montreal painter Pierre Dorion, whose photorealist paintings beg for close viewing, and video work by great Brooklyn-based artist Janet Biggs, in collaboration with Centre Clark’s Montréal/Brooklyn art exchange project. Tesla coils and electric sparks are the exciting stuff of artist Alexandre Burton’s Impacts, at the PHI Centre, which also screening skateboarding film Waiting for Lightning on October 2. September 30 marks the last day to see the fabulous World Press Photo Exhibition, while over at the SAT, DJ Food’s immersive film-and-music experience The Search Engine starts up again, along with Maurice Benayoun’s interactive art installation Tunnel under the Atlantique.

(song and dance) Montreal’s BJM – Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal celebrates 40 years of dance with a show featuring gorgeous, emotional (and even funny at times) pieces by Cayetano Soto, Benjamin Millepied and Barak Marshall, September 28-29 – see Danse Danse for tickets. Tony-award winning musical Guys and Dolls starts up September 30 at  The Segal Centre, while Metachroma Theatre sticks to classic Shakespeare with Richard III, to September 30. And Montreal-based circus Cirque Éloize blends circus arts with hip hop and breakdance in all-ages show iD, featuring 14 high-energy performers,  at Montreal circus centre La Tohu, to October 6, while acrobatics and music astound in Pfffffff, from French circus troupe Akoreacro.

(film fest) The 8th edition of the Montreal International Black Film Festival closes on September 30 with Ken Burns’ documentary The Central Park Five, a investigation into the racial tensions surrounding the 1989 arrest and conviction of five Black and Latino teenagers accused of rape, who spent years in jail before the conviction was overturned. There’s also still time this weekend to see docs, feature films and shorts from around the world, including Alaskaland, about a Nigerian man who grew up in Alaska (September 28), documentary feature The Carrier, about a young woman living with HIV in Zambia (September 29), Harry Belafonte documentary Sing Your Song (September 29), and more.

(babes on stage) The Montreal Burlesque Festival returns September 28-29 with sexy, silly and scandalous shows at Club Soda. Friday’s show is Universal Dream Night, featuring lovely ladies from around the world dancing and theatrically cavorting in their own special ways, while Saturday’s fab Crystal Gala is a cabaret of big burlesque names and surprises, followed by the fest’s very first super sexy Midnight Show, with live classic rock band.

(party times) The 22nd Black and Blue Festival launches on October 3, beckoning queer and queer-friendly party lovers to town. On October 4, there’s the Guess Who? Hommage to the drag queens of Cabaret Mado, plus an all-night party at Circus on October 4. But rest up: the main event, an all-night, all-morning dance party at  Palais des Congrès, happens on October 7. Unrelated, on September 29, there’s a free outdoor Coca-Cola Block Party, with live music from none other than Sean Paul, Down with Webster, M.T.L., Mugz and more, at Jacques-Quartier Quay in the Old Port. And though it’s not officially a party, there will actually be as much dancing and music in the streets as there will be good ol’ walking at the massive Ça Marche fundraiser walk for HIV/AIDS, in the downtown core on Sunday, September 30.

(live music) Friday night is the first of two nights with KD Lang and the Siss Boom Bang at Theatre Corona, while British psych-rock band Django Django and Montreal’s own Mozart’s Sister play Petit Campus. On September 29, Beth Orton is at the lovely L’Astral. On September 30, Gossip get down and dirty at Olympia, while hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky takes the Metropolis stage – earlier in the day at Parc Jean-Drapeau, it’s the last Piknic Electronik of the year! A star-studded benefit concert on October 1 is sold out, but October 2 is a hot, hot night with metal maniacs Anthrax at Metropolis, Jack White’s unique blues-rock-country at L’Olympia, John Hiatt at Club Soda playing songs from his new album Mystic Pinball, British singer-songwriter Fink at Sala Rossa and Swedish-Canadian pop duo Thus: Owls at Lion d’Or. On October 3, groove with Lee Fields and the Expressions at Cabaret du Mile End and listen to the synth-pop sounds of The Raveonettes at Theatre Corona.

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