MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE is one of the largest winter festivals in the world, an annual celebration registering one million festival site visits from fans experiencing the joy of Montreal wintertime through a unique program combining performing arts, gastronomy, free outdoor family activities, and a full night of exquisitely original discoveries!

Montréal, a gourmet destination

As the cornerstone of MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE, the fine-dining program makes Montréal THE ultimate gourmet destination. Since the very 1st edition of the festival, some 500 renowned chefs, wine producers and speakers have taken part. Every edition is a brand-new ode to discovery!

• Countless culinary activities for every taste and budget
• Workshops, tastings and conferences
• The pairing concept at the heart of the festival: every year, the finest Montreal chefs and their greatest counterparts from five continents join forces in the kitchen

It’s showtime!

All facets of culture take the spotlight in Montreal, thanks to the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE artistic program. It’s an eclectic program that showcases icons and new artists alike, from home and abroad!

• Music: an eclectic program that equally embraces classical music, the next generation of artists, musicians from around the world and Montreal premieres
• Theatre
• Circus arts
• Dance

Everyone outside! A free, fun outdoor site

The MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE outdoor site offers a multitude of free activities for all. During the festival, the Quartier des spectacles and its Place des Festivals—the headquarters of downtown celebrations—become THE essential winter destination.

• An extraordinary program circuit of interactive and luminous works: Illuminart
• Activities for all ages: slides, the Ferris wheel, the Zipline, curling…
• Free shows
• Food kiosks for gourmet pit stops

The Most Awaited Night of the Year

As the best-attended single-day event in Montréal every year, the Nuit blanche assembles 300,000 nighthawks who brave winter temperatures to fully experience a singularly wild urban adventure.

So to enjoy everything this Nuit has to offer, climb aboard the Metro—open all night especially for the occasion!—and dive into some of our 200 cultural activities, most of them free, spread throughout the city. This Nuit promises to be dazzling!

MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE by the numbers

Cultural program:

• Over 600 artists
• 226 shows for 41 venues and stages
• 6 countries represented

Fine dining

• 34 Festival’s Finest Tables
• 32 guests from here and abroad
• 2,500 kg of cheese, 19 cheesemakers from 11 Quebec regions in the Festival of Quebec Cheeses

Nuit blanche à Montréal

• 300,000 nighthawks
• 208 activities spread out over 152 sites, 9 pôles
• 17,000 visitors to Art souterrain—a 7 km circuit with 70 contemporary art projects

Outdoor site

• Between 100 and 150 km of technical wiring
• 1,600 lighting projectors
• 18,000 electrical connections
• 110 metres (360 feet) of wild zooming down the Lait Urban Slide
• 180 metres (600 feet) of wild soaring over the site on the RBC Zipline