Montreal

It wouldn’t be a stretch to crown Montreal festival capital of the world, so packed is its cultural calendar. Montrealers named ‘festivals’ the city’s best cultural asset, spotlighting winter light festival Montréal en Lumière and summer’s Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, which proudly holds the current world record for the world’s biggest jazz fest. There’s even a year-round dedicated space just for festivals at Place des Festivals, a plaza at the heart of arts district Quartier des Spectacles. Performing arts venue Place des Artes also lives in the enclave and was crowned the city’s top cultural venue by locals in our survey. One thing’s for sure: Montreal knows how to put on a show.

‘If you’re the kind of person that gets itchy feet on a random Tuesday night you’ll love Montreal,’ says writer and Montreal local Isa Tousignant. ‘There’s literally always something going on. Queer line dancing at Champs sports bar, live post-punk at Sala Rossa by great local bands like CRABE, a life-changing whole-body immersive EDM art night at the dome-shaped Satosphere… dream it up and you’ll find it here.’