Montreal Jazz Festival

Montreal Jazz Festival: Before, During and After

This post is continuation of the Montreal in Pictures. Jazz Festival in Montreal is something to talk about separately.

Today is July 7th, 2009 and the Festival will last till 12th. I already enjoyed some good free concerts, the biggest one being the performance of Stevie Wonder on the main stage of the festival to inaugurate the beginning of the 30th Montreal Jazz Festival.

I took some picture to show you the magic of transformation and the exceptional work done by the Ville de Montreal with the help of major sponsors such as General Motors and Rio Tinto Alcan.

Wonder Summer Night 2009 with Stevie Wonder
Free inauguration concert!

If you are Stevie Wonder’s fan as I am I don’t need to tell you how excited I was on June 30, 2009.

On my way to work around 8:30 am I already noticed a group of young people waiting for the festival site to open. From the way they looked you could tell they were determined to spend over 12 hours near the main stage to really SEE Stevie Wonder and not only listened to him live.

By the time I got home from work I was pretty tired but the festival site was close to my house so I decided to go despite my tiredness.

I started some work to do and as it usually happens I could hardly put it aside to leave.

I left my apartment around 8:30 p.m. – an hour before the show and I live within 5-minutes walking distance.

Oh my God! it was crazy outside. One of the major streets in Montreal, Sherbrooke, was blocked by pedestrians – there was just not enough space on the sidewalk!

The street Jeanne-Mance that takes directly to the main stage was so crowded by people starting from the corner of Sherbrooke street which is good 3 blocks away from the main stage.

Living in the area and knowing it very well as well as being alone and very quick definitely helped me to get as far as I could using the alternative roads.

It was raining but most people just closed the umbrellas to be able to navigate in the crowd. I closed my umbrella too. My glasses were covered by water so I could hardly see, I was getting wet already but I kept walking through the crowd till I find a place near to the one of the huge screens.

Show started at 10 p.m. The newly constructed Place des Arts was completely packed, including the surrounding areas in all directions. And yet, I was happy to be there, even if i could only see him on the screen. At least I could listen to his concert LIVE.

I didn’t even notice how it became midnight and then over midnight. The crowd was singing along and dancing.

There was a beautiful moment when Stevie started to play the Beatles’ song “Michelle ma belle”, He didn’t sing the French part, he just played and slowly people here and there started to sing the French part and then it seemed to be that everybody sings so Stevie was playing and we were singing….

Beautiful moment, especially if you consider that Montreal is predominantly French-speaking environment.

And then Stevie started to sing when the English part of the song came.

This unforgettable concert was closed by grandiose fireworks inaugurating the opening of the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Below are the pictures that I succeeded to take with my camera. There are also some pictures of the main stage in the process of construction and in the morning of the concert’s day.

Amazing Transformation
Part 1

In this module I just attached lots of pictures so you will see the amazing transformations that took place on the ordinary streets and parks of Montreal making them extraordinary.

I am attaching 3 different picture of the same site so you will see the transformation over time:

2. Car Show (the next 3 pictures)

Amazing Transformations
Part 2

Here I will show you the next two transformations:

2. Second big stage of the Festival – stage Rio Tinto Alcan. (3 pictures)

Amazing Transformations
Part 3

Below are the following pictures:

1. The construction of the bar by SAQ (3 picture).

2. Two other Festival stages on the second day of the Festival (2 pictures).

Amazing Transformations
Part 4

Here are pictures of

1.Loto-Quebec stand (2 pictures) and

2. Transformation of the banner on the top of the building (2 pictures).

Amazing Transformations
Part 5: Final

Here are 3 pictures of some Festival stands.

Read also Montreal in Pictures for the full Montreal experience!

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1. Montreal Jazz Festival Part II Festival is over. As anything else it had a beginning...
2. Montreal in Pictures What is This About? This post is about Montreal....

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