Late September hits Montreal like a shot of espresso to the city’s cultural bloodstream. POP Montreal is back for round 24, running September 24-28, and honestly? The timing couldn’t be better. What started as a scrappy independent showcase has grown into something Montreal desperately needs: a festival that gives a damn about the weird stuff without pretending the mainstream doesn’t exist.
This year’s lineup looks like someone’s dream record collection come to life. The festival has always played fast and loose with what “pop” means, stretching the definition until it snaps back into something beautiful. Palestinian hip-hop legends DAM sharing festival space with experimental acts that defy easy categorization. It’s the kind of programming that makes you realize how narrow most festivals actually are.
Montreal’s Annie-Claude Deschênes stepped away from her work with Duchess Says and PyPy to craft something entirely her own, and if you know those bands, you know that’s saying something. Then there’s Isabella Lovestory, who’s been quietly building the city’s neoperreo scene into something that matters beyond our borders.
But let’s talk about the heavy hitters flying in. U.S. Girls always feels at home here. Meghan Remy’s brand of political pop works better in a city that actually reads the news. Zola Jesus brings her gothic industrial sound to Casa del Popolo, which should be a perfect match in every way. And Bolis Pupul? Think early Detroit techno meets Yellow Magic Orchestra, which sounds ridiculous until you hear it and realize it’s genius.
Here’s what POP Montreal gets right: it spreads across actual neighbourhood venues instead of herding everyone into some soulless convention centre. Theatre Rialto, Sala Rossa, Casa del Popolo, L’Escogriffe. These rooms have stories, have witnessed late-night revelations that changed everything for someone. The intimacy isn’t a happy accident. It’s the whole point.
Thursday night at Theatre Rialto makes the point perfectly. SUUNS, Montreal’s own experimental masters, sharing a stage with Circuit des Yeux. Two completely different approaches to pushing sound forward, but somehow it makes sense. That’s the kind of programming that assumes you’re smart enough to follow the thread.
And then there’s Michel Pagliaro. Quebec rock royalty, Top 40 hits, the works. Sharing festival real estate with bedroom pop kids and avant-garde sound artists. Some festivals would call this unfocused. POP Montreal calls it Tuesday. The through-line isn’t genre; it’s giving a shit about the music you’re making.
Don’t sleep on the smaller names, either. Chanel Beads does this pop-punk thing that somehow works with experimental frameworks. Hand Habits writes folk songs for people who stay up too late scrolling through bad news. No Joy has been Montreal’s shoegaze answer to everything for years now, and they still hit different than anyone else doing similar work.
Then there’s Rachel Bobbitt, whose indie rock carries the kind of emotional weight that sneaks up on you. Ribbon Skirt brings Indigenous perspectives to experimental soundscapes that feel both ancient and futuristic. Holy Fuck will remind you why instrumental post-rock still matters, while Les Shirley represent Quebec’s punk tradition with zero compromise. KT Laine offers the kind of intimate songwriting that makes small rooms feel even smaller, and spill tab delivers bedroom pop that actually has teeth. Flower Face rounds out the mix with haunting folk that sticks with you long after last call.
Mile End hasn’t lost its edge, despite what the real estate prices might suggest. Walking between venues becomes part of the experience. The neighbourhood still pulses with the kind of creative energy that makes things happen at 2 AM in basement practice spaces. The city itself becomes the festival grounds, which feels right in ways that are hard to explain but easy to feel.
POP Montreal works because it refuses to pick sides. Local versus international? Both. Experimental versus accessible? Why not both? Established versus emerging? Come on. Twenty-four years in, the festival has figured out that “independence in the arts” means exactly what it says. In a world where three companies own most of the music you hear, that independence matters more than ever.
There’s more than just music, obviously. Film screenings, art installations, industry panels, the SiriusXM Mile End Parade on Sunday. It’s a whole cultural ecosystem, not just a bunch of concerts that happen to occur in the same week. Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and neither should music festivals.
Wednesday night kicks everything off, and you can already feel it building across the city. Twenty-four years of this has created its own rhythm. September means discovery, means staying out later than you planned, means hearing sounds you didn’t know you needed.
Spotify algorithms are fine for background music. POP Montreal is for when you want music to actually change something about how you hear the world. Five days of that starts tonight. Pay attention.
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