POP Montreal International Music Festival is an annual not-for-pro?t curated cultural event that champions independence in the arts by presenting emerging and celebrated artistic talents from around the world. POP Montreal also offers year-round concerts, activities and special events.
POP Montreal is a non-profit organization that runs events from film festivals to flea markets and is best known for the five-day music festival of the same name. Running at the middle or end of September, this festival showcases an array of up-and-coming bands – over 400 of them – as well as more than two dozen headliners each year.
Working with over 40 venues in and around the Mile End area, since its inauguration in 2002 the success of POP Montreal has spawned the art festival, Art POP, film festival, Film POP, and a craft and cultural fair called Puces POP, which runs around Christmas and in the spring. There’s a kids program of events and a recently inaugurated summer market, with film, music and a beer garden, called Marché des Possibles.
The story of this remarkable family of festivals began with the meeting of Daniel Seligman and Peter Rowan on a train from Toronto to Montreal. Dan was 25 and had been managing his brother’s band, Stars. Peter, 20 years his senior, had just moved to Montreal. He's been heavily involved in the Halifax Pop Explosion and managed bands like Sloan and Eric's Trip. The two hit it off and decided to keep in touch.
