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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Madness on the Main!

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Main Madness, the giant St. Laurent street fair that stretches from Mount Royal all the way down to Sherbrooke, happens twice a year, but the June edition is always the best. Summer is still fresh and, most importantly, there is always a ton of stuff happening. Along with the street fair itself, there are a number of activities happening along the Main, including Popolo in the Park and the Fringe Festival (check out Julie Fournier’s daily updates of free Fringe activities). Here are a few more things that might interest you.

Up the Yangtze: There’s a free outdoor screening tonight of local filmmaker Yung Chang’s fantastic documentary about the human impact of the Three Gorges Dam project in China. Watch it at the corner of St. Laurent and Bagg (near Schwartz’s and just outside the Schubert Bath) at 9pm.

Friends of Saint-Laurent: The Friends of the Main will be launching their new baseball caps—made entirely by businesses on the Main—tomorrow at 4pm. You can also buy tickets for two walking tours that will take place on Sunday. One, from 9:30am to 12:30pm, will stroll up the Main from Sherbrooke to Mount Royal, stopping along the way to explore the different cultures that have made themselves at home on the street. Another, from 2pm to 5pm, will head up through the Mile End portion of St. Laurent. Tickets for both are $12 for non-members and $10 for members.

La Frénésie du Manhunt: Things will start in St. Louis Square tomorrow at 5pm “next to the gazebo” (since there’s no gazebo there, I assume they mean the ice cream stand). Participants will “run around trying to catch each other while onlookers watch with both fear and arousal.”

Mock gun fight: A bunch of Improv Everywhere shit-disturbers will meet at the corner of Coloniale and Prince Arthur tomorrow at 7pm and then proceed to stage a mock gun battle at an undisclosed location on the Main. The concept is similar to the flashmobbers who have stood, frozen in place, in Berri-UQAM metro. I’m not entirely sure how well this will go over but it should be fun to watch.

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4 comments

  1. I was trying to do my grocery shopping on St-Laurent but suburbanites kept stopping and gawking right in my way. I almost got hit by a few monster truck-tired strollers.

  2. Up the Yangtze is a great film. I’m a little worried about how it will might look at 9 pm, because there’s a still a lot of light out, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

  3. I had failed to note that this post went up Friday. So I showed up Saturday evening, hoping to see Up the Yangtze. Instead, they were showing Jean Lemire’s gorgeous doc on the climate change in the Antarctic, Le dernier continent. Didn’t stay to watch the whole thing, but it’s a stunner. I think Lemire is really the new Jacques Cousteau, the way he’s building a brand for himself. His tall ship Sedna IV looks grand against the Antarctic floes, which you literally see melting before your eyes (gulp).

    Today, on Sunday, screenings wrap up with a raffle of some kind. A mere two bucks a pop. It’s a fund raiser for DOC Quebec — the Quebec chapter of the Documentary Organization of Canada — a worthy cause.

  4. The tall ships will be on the east coast of Canada this July.

    They are arriving in the Atlantic Challenge 2009!

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