(Halloween how-to) Halloween in Montreal is fun for everyone, with parties, ghoulish events and family-friendly activities from Friday night to Wednesday night. Start off slow with pumpkin carving and games at the Montreal Botanical Garden’s Great Pumpkin Ball, to October 31, head to amusement park La Ronde for roller coasters of fun for kids big and small, Tour Montreal’s ghoulish history with Montreal Ghosts, or head up Mont Royal on a Haunted Mountain walking tour. Of course, Halloween wouldn’t be complete without the Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Ball, an interactive dress-up experience with a live cast on stage following along as the film screens, hosted by Plastik Patrik at the Cinéma Impérial, October 26, 27 and 31, And then there are the parties – check out the Montreal Buzz Halloween Guide for more opportunities for mayhem.

(fantastic food) Montreal’s TASTE MTL Restaurant Week begins Nov 1 and runs for 11 food-filled days. Peruse prix-fixe menus – from $19 to $39 – online, make reservations and experience some of the best meals Montreal can offer, all at unusually affordable prices for gourmet food. But how to choose where to eat among so many restaurants? If you’re into discovering new parts of the city, choose 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.

(film & animation) Yes, it’s still film festival season in Montreal! The French-language (often with subtitles!) Cinémania begins November 1 and runs for the next 11 days, with features, shorts, retrospectives (including an extensive one on Sandrine Bonnaire’s films), presentations and more. Cinémania opens with official Cannes competitor, Jacques Audiard’s De Rouille Et D’os, 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. On Saturday, October 27, check out The National Film Board’s Get Animated! workshops and screenings for all ages – even create your own Halloween-inspired animated film using professional equipment and post it to YouTube.

(circus & dance) One of the most talked-about choreographers in the world these days, Hofesh Shechter, returns to Montreal with his powerful show Political Mother, featuring 10 dancers and 7 musicians – and plenty of rock n’ roll energy – at Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts, November 1-3. And Montreal-based international circus troupe 7 Doigts de la Main returns to La Tohu circus centre with acclaimed show Séquence 8, 90 minutes of breathtaking  acrobatics, physical feats and style all wrapped up in a tale of relationships with the “other” – running October 30 to November 17.

(east & west) Enjoy all kinds of entertainment at the 13th Arab World Festival of Montreal, October 26-November 10, linking Arabic and Western cultures through music, performance, film, art and talks. Place des Arts is the place to be to catch free performances all weekend, with evening dance performances, demonstrations of Arab calligraphy, film screenings of highlights of the festival, and plenty of amazing live music. The fest’s opening night performance mixes Arab folklore with world beats, flamenco and jazz via string-instrument vituosi Sultans of String to Le National, with openers Nicolas Pellerin et les Grands Hurleurs playing Arab-influenced Quebecois traditional music, while on October 27 at L’Olympia, hear the pioneering Algerian hip hop of Lotfi Double Kanon.

(sound & performance) Fans of experimental music and performance take note of the following. The Akousma Festival of sound art continues at Usine C (near the Village, super close to Atmosphère B&B: take in fully surround-sound performances (42 speakers!) by Francisco López and Daniel Menche on October 27 and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Monty Adkins and Paulina Sundin on October 28. Friday night marks the final night of the Phénomena Festival of performance art with Claude Poissant and (many) friends’ Cabaret Désir Dada at La Sala Rossa, preceded by a mysterious outdoor performance next door. And downtown at the SAT, catch the last screening of DJ Food’s graphic-novel-inspired The Search Engine, a psychedelic 360-degree audio-visual experience in the SAT’s dome – the same place they’re throwing an electro-dance Halloween party on Saturday night.

(music rocks) Friday night is busy with Aussie pop star Kimbra at the Corona, Rufus Wainwright at Église St-Jean Baptiste (309 Rachel E.), former Fleet Foxes member Father John Misty playing songs from his new album Fear Fun at Cabaret Mile End, while Swans and A Hawk and a Handsaw fill La Tulipe with wall-to-wall sound. On the other end of the musical spectrum on Friday night, Video Games Live at the Bell Centre, turns video game tunes into a symphonic stadium concert experience. Then, on October 27, go back in time with The Hit Men, featuring members of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, as they play a dinner show at the Rialto. Meanwhile, Montreal’s Wintersleep co-headlines with Elliott Brood for a night of rock at the Corona. On Sunday, The Smashing Pumpkins return in full form at the Bell Centre and Milo Green is at Sala. Monday night is ear-bending with Sam Shalabi and his Land of Kush orchestra at Sala, while Chris Isaak croons on October 30 at Theatre St-Denis, andThe Weeknd  takes over Metropolis for two nights: October 29 and 31.

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(film fest fun) The final weekend of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema has arrived, but there are still plenty of all-new feature films, shorts and documentaries to see, from closing film Camille Redouble by Noémie Lvovsky to an autobiography of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman to concert films about Peaches and The Chemical Brothers, plus a multimedia, multi-DJ “Suicide Hotel” party on Friday night and closing party on Saturday night with DJ Thomas von PARTY, at Quartier Général. Meanwhile, the 4th edition of the Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival, October 19-21, screens over 70 new stop-motion animation films from Montreal and around the world.

(intrigue on stage) Explore the Plateau and Mile End neighbourhoods via a true Montreal creation: The Phénomena Festival, to October 26. The festival of music, performance and art, is a reinvention of the 10-year-old Festival Voix d’Amériques, dedicated to showcasing the beautiful, strange and poetic artistic voices in this city and further afield. see artist and musician Genisis P-Orridge on stage with spoken-word group Thee Majesty on October 20 at Cabaret du Mile End, in film The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye at Excentris, and with art showing at La Centrale; as well, see Kobol’s marionette show Voodoo at Usine C, Kabin tells 15 stories via 15 small booths on October 20, duo 2boys.tv span the history of their performance career in Generation on October 21, plus free music and performances every evening at 5 p.m. at Divan Orange, featuring Teen Sleuth, Free Opera Ensemble, Jef Barbara and many more, as well as free open mic nights at 11 p.m. at Casa del Popolo.

(frightful & delightful) Halloween starts early this year in Montreal. If you’re downtown at Place des Arts in the Quartier des Spectacles on Saturday around noon, don’t panic: the zombie apocalypse is not upon us, it’s just people dressed up for the Montreal Zombie Walk – join in if you’re zombie-inclined. Freaks of a different sort sing and dance for our pleasure in The Rocky Horror Show, garnering some great  reviews at Mainline Theatre, to October 20. And there’s also something a little freaky – in the most awesome sense – about DJ Food’s The Search Engine, an all-encompassing audio-visual experience like no other, screening in the dome of the surround-sound Satosphere at the SAT, to October 26.

(sports fans) A pro first for Montreal this week: the NBA Canada series pits the New York Knicks against the Toronto Raptors, October 19 at the Bell Centre. And while the NHL season is sadly on hold due to labour talks among hockey players and the league, the spirit of hockey is still strong in Montreal with national women’s hockey champions The Stars, featuring Olympic national team players Kim St-Pierre, Meghan Agosta, Caroline Ouellette and more. The Stars play Boston on October 20 at 5 p.m. and October 21 at 1 p.m. at Étienne Desmarteau Arena.
(tragedy & comedy) An epic 10th-century Japanese folk tale comes to life in choreographer Jiří Kylián’s Kaguyahime, The Moon, produced beautifully by Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, October 11-27. Quebecois playwright Suzie Bastien probes the human psyche in the dramatic The Medea Effect, at Theatre La Chapelle, to October 20. Old Montreal’s Centaur Theatre features Scapegoat Theatre’s take on Euripedes’ tragedy The Bacchae, to October 20, as well as Quebecois playwright Jean Marc Dalpé’s family drama August, An Afternoon in the Country. Meanwhile, the Segal Centre lightens the mood with Broadway musical Guys and Dolls to October 31, and well-known and even well-loved Montreal comedian and Just For Laughs festival veteran Joey Elias brings his One Man Show at Club Soda on October 21.

(urban art) The Montréal/Brooklyn collaborative contemporary art project makes its mark on the city’s gallery scene this weekend, highlighting the artistic similarities and differences between the two urban centres. On Friday and Saturday, new shows open at Centre Clark and artist-run centre articule, as well at galleries in the Belgo building – Galerie SAS, Optica, Galerie Division and Les Territoires – and down the street at Galerie de l’UQAM, featuring multi-artist Vidéozones exhibition (above), and the Musée d’art contemporain, featuring work by Janet Biggs and Aude Moreau.

(live music) Friday night is indie-rock alright with Cat Power playing tunes from her new album Sun at Metropolis, The Sea & Cake at Il Motore, Dragonette at the Corona Theatre, and Brooklyn electro duo Blondes at Le Belmont. Pittsburg rapper Wiz Khalifa, rolls into town with Juicy J, Chevy Woods and many others at Uniprix Stadium on October 20. Monday night goes punk with Off!, The Spits and Double Negative at Foufounes Electriques. On October 23, Dan Mangan brings his folk-rock sensibility to Theatre Corona, San Francisco’s Sic Alps play Divan Orange. The Jezabels rock Cabaret Mile End and Social Distortion shake up Metropolis. Montreal’s Papagroove release their newest album on October 24 at Theatre Plaza – free! Akousma 9, a festival of digital music, brings its immersive audio-visual wonders to Usine C, October 24-27. And the ‘80s are back with Air Supply in an “intimate evening” on October 25 at Metropolis.

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