About Us

POP Montreal is a grass roots festival created and supported by people who love music and live performance. Founded in 2002 by Daniel Seligman, Noelle Sorbara, and Peter Rowan (who has since moved on down the 401), it has expanded in scope and vision every year, and celebrated it’s 6th anniversary from October 3rd - 7th this fall.

Pop Montreal remains firmly rooted in the ethic and aesthetics of the Montreal music community. Hyperbole aside, we truly believe that Montreal is a special place, populated by a lot of amazing people who adore music. And we know it’s an amazing place to have a five-day party.

We are committed to providing opportunities for independent musicians, promoters, fans, and creative minds all of types to participate in what we truly believe is a world class international event. We will never become a compromised showcase for formulaic and uninspiring acts and their big record execs. We’re more interested in being a curated event for truly unknown artists and forgotten legends that we feel deserve a unique platform. We will never offer an entire lineup of obvious flavor-of-the-year acts. You will see the occasional superstar and breakthrough act, but most of all Pop Montreal is where you will see the headliners of the future play to their first excited crowds at intimate venues. Pop is where you will see 90 year old crooners jamming with 20 year old wunderkinds.

Every year the festival sees more creative minds committing to help expand and execute its mandate. In addition to nights packed with music of every kind, we host events to focus attention on policy, independent film and photography, art, fashion, and as always, unhinged loft parties stretching into the wee hours of the morning. The 6th anniversary 2007 edition saw Pop Montreal team up with McGill University, The Future of Music Coalition and the Center for Intellectual Property Policy (CIPP) for for a one-of-a-kind policy summit called Music Fast Forward. In addition to bringing great independent films, this year Film Pop will be working with Canada’s National Film Board to also produce a series of films about local artists, by local directors. What started as a whim in 2005 with the PopCast (the festival’s year round podcast and web content) has rapidly turned into an international phenomenon, taking the spirit of Pop Montreal as an annual event an using the new media revolution to make it something you can tune into on a daily basis. Puces Pop, our zine/craft/fashion fair, celebrated its third year, and provided endless objects of endearment for daytime coddling during the festival. And Art Pop just may have revolutionized the international art world as we know it.

We’re always looking for people to get involved. Grassroots means something that happens from the ground up. It means it’s not sketched out in focus groups and executed by marketing plans. It means you have an idea and you say, ‘who’s with me?’ and you make it happen. This is how Pop Montreal continues to grow. So if you want to be part of the greatest party in the world, get it touch.