As any parent knows, practical considerations are very important when planning days out with the kids. Below are some suggestions to help you optimize your enjoyment at some of Montreal’s favourite family attractions.

According to Nadia Paquet of the Montreal Science Centre, all of the Centre’s activities are intended for families, so it’s an ideal destination for kids. There’s also a brand-new section, Clic! The Zone for Curious Young Minds, that’s especially for very young and curious minds of 4-7 years old. Here, kids can play in a stimulating environment while also learning about scientific concepts. In this sense-stimulating, wonder-filled space, kids can have fun playing with shapes and colours, all while developing their creativity and dexterity in an environment that encourages teamwork and social skills. Admission to the Montreal Science Centre is free for under-3s, strollers are permitted in the exhibition rooms (though not in the IMAX theatre), and there are lockers for gear storage.

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(easter time) Celebrate spring in Montreal by spending some time in nature, indoors and out. Take the kids on a different kind of easter egg hunt at the Ecomuseum zoo or hunt for butterflies (with your eyes only) at the Montreal Botanical Gardens’s Butterflies Go Free special exhibition. Learn more about the environment and biodiversity at the Botanical Garden’s Base Camp and at the Montreal Biodome, where kids can discover live animals and plants from around the world, there’s even a (non-chocolate) egg exhibition in the lobby. And see even more butterflies at the Montreal Science Centre’s IMAX screening of Flight of the Butterflies in 3D.

(easter eats) Quebec’s famed sugar shack season happens to be in full form this Easter weekend too – try out La Cabane in the Old Port, restaurants with maple-syrup themed menus, or take a short drive out of town to experience the complete sugar shack experience. Visit the Montreal Botanical Gardens to learn more about where maple syrup comes from and try out the candy-like concoction of maple syrup on snow, until April 26. For even more sweet treats – and several savoury ones too – peruse Montreal’s excellent Italian delis, the Jean Talon Market or simply go for the classic Easter brunch at one of many Montreal brunch spots, from Old Montreal to Mile End, and pick up some chocolate along the way.

(dance & theatre) Danse Danse presents The Light Between, a new work of hope and vulnerability by Governor General’s Award winning choreographer Margi Gillis, to March 30 at Place des Arts, and, beginning April 4, the astounding Spanish flamenco of María Pagés as the star dances a show called Autorretrato, “a self-portrait created at Mikhaïl Baryshnikov’s instigation.” More dance takes the stage at the Centaur Theatre, where Danish dance-theatre troupe Granhøj Dans celebrates the music of Leonard Cohen – in intriguing, funny and surprising ways – in Dance Me to the End On/Off Love, to April 14.

(immersive art) Artistic visions of spring are beginning to show themselves this week too. New exhibitions at the MACM captivate with colour and intrigue with interactivity and every Sunday afternoon, kids and adults alike can participate in hands-on art-making workshops. Experimental, immersive, digital video art amazes at the SAT’s 360º Satosphere dome: audio-visual show Chaos and Order continues until March 29, followed up starting April 2 with P3rception, a program of three exploratory works that might just cause sensory overload: Diana Reichenbach’s animated film ||0.1.||, Eric Hanson and Charles Lindsay’s Carbon-X, and Ulf Langheinrich’s Hemisphere. And outdoors, projected on the face of UQAM’s Président-Kennedy building in the heart of the Quartier des Spectales, see animated film Le cycle de l’eau.

(live music) One of hip-hop’s best starts the weekend right on Friday night: Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kweli gets lyrical with Koriass, Ceas Rock and Dj Manifest at Club Soda – the show is one of many at the Montreal Hip Hop Festival, happening all weekend. Also on Friday, Los Angeles indie-rock band Local Natives comes to town with Superhumanoids at Le National, and Saturday night is nothing but old-school LA punk with Bad Religion at Metropolis. On April 1, The Dear Hunter tour their new album Migrant, at Sala Rossa. Turn Tuesday night into a sweaty electronic music dance party with Chicago DJ duo Flosstradamus at the SAT or British electro-rock band Modestep at the Corona Theatre. On April 3, Alicia Keys and Miguel (!) put a spell on the Bell Centre and K-OS and Rich Aucoin shake up the Corona. And on Thursday, April 4, much-loved Francophone singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Damien Robitaille plays Metropolis and Montreal’s Suuns brighten up Sala.

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The MACM is always an accessible museum, but these days it’s even more interactive than usual thanks to two works by British-born, Berlin-based artist Tinho Segal. Creating a cross between theatre and visual art that somehow sidesteps art performance, Seghal builds entire sets in museums and hires “actors” to animate them in carefully choreographed situations.

Right now there are two of his pieces at the MACM: his iconic Kiss, from 2002, which involves a couple reinterpreting famous kisses drawn from the history of art in a tightly choreographed 8-minute loop; and This Situation, from 2007, a conversation piece that has the “agents” discuss philosophical issues between themselves and with the visitor, if you so choose. Passersby can influence the whole direction the performance takes awhile they are in the room. Now that’s power!

Right next door in the video room don’t miss 4 000 Disparos by Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade, for which he filmed male faces in Super 8 film as he travelled throughout Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, in a journey of territorial recognition of a Latin America he belongs to without feeling part of. French artist Laurent Grasso and Montreal artist Lynne Cohen round out the current exhibitions: With his trickster’s take on temporality and the making of history, Grasso’s show, titled, Uraniborg, presents neon signs, objects, videos and more that lead to the creation of what the artist calls a “false historical memory.”

Cohen, on the other hand, presents 40 of her interior landscapes – since the 1970s the artist has been capturing, unpopulated, often odd spaces constructed by humans, used by humans, but devoid of humans. The images are filled with the tension created by that emptiness and the occasional inexplicable aspects of the photographs. Photo: courtesy of Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto.

On April 5, make sure you catch the Friday Nocturne, the museum’s popular series from 5 to 9 pm every first Friday of the month, which this time features saxophonist Colin Stetson. Famous as a member of Bell Orchestre and a collaborator of Arcade Fire, Lou Reed and Feist, Stetson explores the limit of his instrument in his solo work, creating beautiful soundscapes that will transport you to wholly ethereal planes.

In May this bunch of exhibitions will make way for two new guys: the first solo exhibition in Canada of Brooklyn-based artist Eve Sussman and her collaborative team Rufus Corporation, for one. Generated by algorithm but influenced by the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Jean-Luc Godard and Wim Wenders, Sussman’s filmic pieces offer a futuristic look at space and time, utopia and dystopia, fractured narration and torn landscapes from Russia and Central Asia. In the next room there’ll be Montreal artist Michel de Broin, whose playful multidisciplinary practice extends from photography to video to sculpture, and explores the notions of resistance, misappropriation and recycling with a cynical sense of humour.

THE DETAILS

Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 185 Sainte-Catherine West, (514) 847-6226

Photo Credits- Tinho Segal Photo: ©Tate, Jonathas de Andrade Photo: courtesy of Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto

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Bal en Blanc bills itself as the largest event of its kind in North America under a covered space. 15,000 people will converge at the Palais des congrès de Montreal to celebrate electronic music, fashion and dancing. The DJ line-up is looking to be an impressive one with David Guetta and Calvin Harris headlining the Main Room, and Armin Van Buuren in the Trance Room. Check out the full DJ line-up here.

If you’re heading into Montréal for Bal en Blanc, the official partner hotels include the W Montreal, and the Westin. Both have special White Party rates that are accessible here.

There is a whole slew of connected events leading up to the big ball that have the official Bal en Blanc stamp of approval. A full list of connected events is available here, and highlights include Yinon Yafel at Unity on Thursday, March 28 in the Gay Village, and Eliad Cohen with the PAPA World Tour at Stereo on Saturday, March 30.

Dress Code? White. It’s part of the ambiance. Don’t be that person who thinks they’re being cheeky by wearing mustard yellow. You are not cheeky and people will glare. Most of all: Party smart, play safe, and have a wonderful time! (You might even meet the dancing bunny.)

THE DETAILS

Bal en Blanc 2013, March 30 to April 1, 2013

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Pointe-à-Callière, the Montreal history and archaeology museum, has been hosting its Port Symphonies for 20 years now, challenging a local or international composer to pen a symphony to be performed using a variety of ship horns, train whistles and percussion found in the harbour of the Old Port – the result of that endeavour plays out near the museum at Place Royale on March 3 and March 10 at 1:30 p.m.

This year, in light of Pointe-à-Callière’s Japan-focused temporary exhibition Samurai: The Prestigious Collection of Richard Béliveau, the museum asked Japanese Montrealer Kota Nakamura to compose a work that would evoke the culture and history of Japan. The symphony, entitled Cymbidium, not only makes use of train whistles and tugboat horns, but incorporates human voices, flute, taiko drums and more.

While the armour and weaponry of Japan’s samurai tradition stand proudly displayed in all their finery inside the museum, representing one aspect of the country’s culture, Nakamura’s symphony, named after Japanese orchids that blossom in March, lends a lighter note to traditional and contemporary Japanese ways of life, while also commenting on the urban landscape of the Port of Montreal. The museum even adds another Japanese touch this weekend with their Nuit Blanche festivities including re-tellings of traditional samurai tales.

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THE DETAILS

Pointe-à-Callière’s Port Symphonies, March 3 and 10, 2:30 p.m.

Photo Credit: © Noémie Letu

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(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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From February 14 until April 28, the Montreal Botanical Garden will welcome thousands of beautiful butterflies and their equally attractive cousins, moths. The 16^th edition of Butterflies Go Free promises that 2000 butterflies will be fluttering about the green house at all times. You and your family can look forward to discovering over 75 different species of moths and butterflies hailing from Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Kenya, Malaysia and the Philippines…

This year the Butterflies Go Free‘ spotlight is on the majestic Monarch butterflies. These butterflies are featured not only for their exquisite good looks, but because they have the longest migration in North America. They travel from Mexico in the winter to Quebec where they are spotted around June (probably heading to the Jazz Fest) and until the end of the summer. It takes 4 generations of Monarch’s to complete the trip, which usually spans about one year. And you thought you didn’t like winter.

While you’re at the Botanical Gardens, visitors can recline in the swank Monarch Lounge. The Monarch Lounge’s seats are designed like eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises. The decor was dreamed up by Quebec designer Liz Vandal, an internationally renowned fashion/costume designer famous for creating the costumes for Cirque du Soleil’s insect inspired show, OVO. From the butterflies and moths to the decor, Butterflies Go Free is a lovely way to welcome Spring in an almost fairy tale like setting.

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THE DETAILS

Butterflies Go Free, February 14 to April 28, 2013
Montreal Botanical Gardens, 4101 Sherbrooke Street East, (514) 872-1400

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Arsenal was already among the city’s biggest non-museum art spaces, but as of last week they’ve broken their own records. With a brand new show dramatically titled Like Thunder Out of China, uniting nearly 50 works by contemporary Chinese artists, they revealed a massive (think 22,000 square feet) section of the building that was as of yet unused. Part cavernous exhibition hall, part loading dock, the possibilities for parties (Grand Prix and Fashion Week are already regular clients) are endlessly exciting.

The art on view also does the space justice: The showstopper is the famous Miss Mao 3 by the Gao brothers, an 8-foot-tall stainless steel bust of Mao sporting huge inflated breasts, a creepy doll smile and a Pinocchio nose. (Is it any surprise the work is banned from exhibition in China?) The father of Chinese pop art, Qui Jie, contributes a series of drawings replacing politicians’ heads with those of cats – another sort of derision, only cuter. In fact, all the art was chosen for its cheeky spunk, its dissidence, its ability to comment on the state of China today from within. All the artists included still call China home.

When you hear Chinese art you may automatically think Ai Weiwei – he’s not included in this show, which focuses on the younger generation, but Like Thunder Out of China does mark the Canadian launch of the book Weiwei-isms and MAO, the complete book of his Mao iconography. Check it out in person, in the beautiful Arsenal space.

THE DETAILS

Like Thunder Out of China, Until July 27, 2013

Arsenal, 2020 William, (514) 931-9978

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It will come as no surprise that a festival named after a Swiss-mountain-dwelling gnome who uses his giant feet as skis and takes pride in his frozen beard would favour extreme sports done in extreme temperatures. Barbegazi takes over the esplanade at Montreal’s sprawling Olympic Park February 15-16, generally trying to outdo the mammoth architecture of the Olympic Stadium with dangerous – yet super entertaining – snowboard, freeski, snowskate, snowmobile (“freestyle sled”) and lumberjack competitions.

Watch the action unfold from the safe distance of the sidelines as experts and amateurs take to the Park’s snowy grounds starting at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 15, with snowboard, freeski and snowskate free practice sessions, along with death-defying aerial snowmobiling demos, all to the tune of DJ A-Rock. Saturday’s activities start at noon with more free practice, finals, best-trick sessions and lumberjack competitions, with music provided by DJs Cantin, Ros-B and Funkyfalz, culminating in awards ceremonies for all sports.

On hand to talk about why and how they do what they do are some of the sports’ top athletes, who will sign autographs, answer questions and maybe even give wannabe winter athletes tips on safety and awesomeness. At the end of each day, music and parties are there to chill everyone out: the festival’s kickoff party happens on February 14 at Mr. Smith (4061 Ontario E.), on February 15 at 9:30 p.m. France’s The Trickaz play a live set at the Olympic Park followed by an afterparty at Rose Phillips, (5800 De La Roche), and Saturday night’s Griffon After-Ski Party is sure to be the relaxing breather everyone needs after a weekend of extremes.

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THE DETAILS

Barbegazi Winter Action Sports Festival, February 15-16, 2012

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“Oh, definitely,” enthuses Natalie Émond, vice-president of marketing for Pêche Blanche Ice Fishing Village. “Weekends are quite busy, and we recommend that people make reservations in advance. On a busy weekend day we might have as many as 400 people here.”

It’s a simple matter of location, location, location. Which in this case is the Clock Tower Basin in the historic Old Port, a ten-minute walk from Old Montreal’s Champ de Mars metro station. The proximity is not lost on Pêche Blanche’s rapidly expanding patronage.

“We see real fishermen, the ones who come at 7:30 a.m. and stay all day, but they’re not the norm,” says Émond. “It’s mostly families and tourists, people who would normally take their car and drive an hour and a half in order to go ice fishing.”

“People are mostly fishing perch and walleye, and we had a pike come out last Saturday, which was the first of the season. And a lot of burbot as well.” Er, burbot? “It’s not a very nice looking fish, but apparently it’s very good.”

But can you eat ’em? The answer is yes. And no. While there are several species of fish that are only catch and release – sturgeon, muskellunge and catfish primarily – there are numerous others, including perch, walleye, pike and the aforementioned inglorious burbot, that are yours for the keeping. And to answer the bigger question, yes, they are safe to eat.

“The fish are definitely edible,” says Émond. “[Journalists from] La Presse came and caught a few fish and brought them back to the Université de Montréal to have them analyzed and the mercury in the fish was way, way under the government norms for edibility.”

The Ice Fishing Village is open every day until 8 pm, Sunday to Wednesday, and until 11 pm Thursday to Saturday. And for the nervous among us, have no fear. “The ice is 23-inches thick at the thinnest,” reassures Émond. So no need to worry about taking an impromptu winter swim in the boat basin? “Absolutely not!”

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THE DETAILS

Pêche Blanche Ice Fishing Village, Clock Tower Quay, (514) 284-3456

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