Laval became a cultural center | “We’re as cool as Montreal!”

Festivals at Laval Rhymes End of Summer, Diapason, Mosaic and LVL UP take place from August 5th to September 19th. In recent years opportunities to celebrate culture have multiplied in le Jésus, where people want to turn art into a unifying tool. Enter a municipality that wants nothing to be jealous of in Montreal.

Marissa Groguh
Tap

“We want people to know about Laval. Laval may have a negative feeling, but we’m as cool as Montreal! The smile in her voice, Diapason Festival programmer, Lawrence Perrault, does not take half the action to talk about the territory where the event takes place. This year, the music festival canceled in 2020 , Settles again in the district of Saint-Rose, north of the city.

From Thursday and until Sunday, Patrick Watson, The Franklin Electric, Matt Holbovsky, Elliott Maginot, Naya Ali, Les Duux Lux, Emile Bilodio and many others take turns in the three stages of Diapason.

Tap Went there on Thursday. The public is there, these days Saint-Rose is coming alive. The atmosphere was festive, but in the style of a country festival, it was pleasant and soothing. In Old Saint-Rose, the sweet strings of Gabriel Shonk pierced the walls of buildings.

Singer-songwriter, her pink hair is as flamboyant as her yellow crocs shoes, providing an hour of music to a full and delighted audience. The wonderful group after dark is The Franklin Electric.

At the same time, a few minutes away, in Boise de Elquaire, Ghostly is playing for 150 special people who have access to the first concert of the series under the Kisses Stars. After crossing the residential area, after a shuttle ride and a kilometer walk, we reached this secluded view of the jungle, which was one of the great achievements of the festival.

Patrick Watson took on the responsibility of closing in the middle of the woods, this first evening, in this wonderful setting. Alone on stage, but surrounded by his piano and all his sound machines, he took great pleasure in delivering a half-better performance, with a little offbeat and magic.

A “momentum”

Dipason 12 celebrates the sound^E This year is the anniversary. The festival is one of the forerunners of a growing bubbling movement that wants to keep culture at the forefront in Laval.

Steve Marcocks, music programmer [co]Motion – the Laval company behind LVL UP – remember coming to Laval లో in 2017, after working for years on the Montreal scene. “There are things to come, the desire of companies to manage outreach projects, but nothing is clear yet,” he said. Everything has to be built, but there is an adaptation. ”

The first edition of the LVL UP Rap Music and Digital Arts Festival took place in 2019 and the second opens on September 16th. When it comes to architecture that makes LVL UP, “the city has a boost in building culture in development,” says Steve Marcox.

This speed is very useful for the project and is reflected in many other programs. Of these, the new Village Laval, also designed [co]Motion. The idea? Give more “vitality” to the Montmorency quartet, where LVL UP is already setting up its quarters.

“And not only this year, we want to live in the quadrangle all summer [dans l’avenir] , Explains Steve Marcox.

Location support

So the invitation was opened for other cultural events to come and settle there. And the Mosaic Festival, which makes its first attempt from August 26 to 29, responded. Central Artists programmer Carl-Eric Hoodon, who designed and built the event, agrees that “it’s a strange year to start the festival.” The draft of the festival, the idea of ​​uniting several companies was born from the generator, dates before the epidemic. The project received Laval City support and the organizers did not hesitate to launch it within the limits of the health condition.

Mosaic will host concerts in late August by TEKE :: TEKE, Sarahmée, Elisapie and Afrikana Soul Sister. Primarily a musical event, not as multidisciplinary as the festival’s mission, Carl-Eric Hoodon agrees.

Once again, COVID-19 changed the rules of the game, but it was only a postponement, because the event was better here, organizers hope.

While Diapason and LVL UP have very broad goals in terms of their audience, they invite Montreallers and North Shore residents as well as Laval residents to their event “” Laval is the audience we are trying to attract “. Welcome to everyone, however, the availability of Laval residents is, above all, an important checkbox in the development of the festival.

Make Laval Shine

During the Diapason Festival, the fauna of visitors comes mainly from the Ele Jasas and the North Coast, but also from Montreal and elsewhere. Finding the surrounding Saint-Rose district, its restaurants, its shops, its bars is also highly recommended.

According to Lawrence Perrault, in the eyes of LVL UP and Mosaïque programmers, this is only the beginning of something beautiful in Laval‌. “There are as many different interests as there are people in life, so it’s good to have a lot to offer different things,” says Programmer of Diapason.

“We all develop events that are beautiful and unique,” said Steve Marcocks. ”

Visit the Diapason Festival website

Visit the LVL UP website

Visit the Mosaic website