The WorldSpace team went to Montreal for 11 days from July 13 to 24 to bring you reports and highlights from Festival International Nuits D’Afrique. It was almost 2 weeks of World Music concerts featuring over 40 top names in the genre. For the first eight days, the concerts were held in various venues all across Montreal. We checked out shows at Club Balattou, Kola Note, La Tulipe, Lion D'or and Le National. This gave us a chance to catch the metro or flag a cab and explore the various neighborhoods and cultures. The final 3 days featured an outdoor event hosted in a park right in the middle of the city. We've often said in the past that the best festivals are the ones that not only have great music, but also have great things to do when visitors aren't watching music. We found Montreal to be a lively and lovely city. By holding concerts in a variety of different neighborhoods all across Montreal, Nuits D'Afrique did a fantastic job of showing off a large part of the city during these early events. We also enjoyed the fact that the first weeks shows were held only at night. This gave us a chance to put on our walking shoes during the daytime and be tourists. We got to explore Old Town, Chinatown, the Montreal Port, the Olympic City, Gay Village, the Biosphere and the BioDome, the shopping, the museums and lots of fantastic places to eat like Mondo Fritz Restuauant, Boccacinos Restaurant and many more. We found the food in Montreal to be top-notched. It was our experience that Montreal is the kind of city in which you can be walking around in pretty much any neighborhood...stop into pretty much any eatery...and find something great to eat. Much like the food, we found the Nuits D'Afrique festival to be an incredible international mix. We enjoyed the collection of internationally known World Music artists, lesser know surprises and local Montreal musicians. We love going to festivals that give us a chance to discover new artists that we didn't previously know about. We came across several fantastic musical discoveries at Nuits D'Arique. Overall, we greatly enjoyed this festival and look forward to a chance to go back again sometime in the future.
Event Spotlight
FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL NUITS D'AFRIQUE