Montreal Electric Groove Festival Gets It on Digitally
Dear Criminals. Photo Joel Mak
The summer highlight for fans of indie and pop might be Osheaga. For those who like it jazzy and adult contemporary, the Jazz Fest. For fans of the Francophone artist, Francofolies. But for fans of local electronic music, the MEG, the Montreal Electronic Groove Festival, is like having your birthday for a little over a week at the end of July.
From July 23 to August 2, DJs, concerts, and the much-loved MEG boat make their appearance. It’s the festival’s 17th year and it has a solidly local line up.
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When things start July 23, you’ll have to decide if you’d rather see Dear Criminals, Secret Secret Girl and Doldrums at Sala Rossa, or if you prefer J.u.D., High Klassified, and Dave Luxe at the Belmont. Equally frustrating are your choices on July 24, when its’ Melt Mtl, Robert Robert, and Fakear at the Belmont, or Fragile Feet, About:, Human Human, and Syzzors at Divan Orange. Life is unfair.
July 25 is the MEG Boat, a party that goes from midnight until a ridiculous hour. Get on board with Darius, Myd, DJ Slow, and Fonkynson. Get as much sleep as you can, and then on July 26, chill out all day at Sunday’s Piknic Electronik. At Piknic, you can catch Kill Frenzy, and a surprise artist on the Moog stage, with Claire on the Videotron stage.
On Thursday July 30, it’s not so much rinse and repeat as recover and rave. There’s a huge free show of Psychorigid at 10 p.m. at Place des Festivals, while at night, you can catch Das Mortal and friends at Divan Orange. Friday is Buck Smith, Adam Husa, and Jimmy Be. Saturday, if you’re still breathing, Tomas Furey, Moses Baxter, and Technical Kidman (dj style, that is) are at Divan Orange. This is the same weekend as Osheaga, so you might find your energies divided if you go in for all kinds of music.
The festival pass that lets you into both Belmont shows and the MEG boat is a very affordable $70. Individual show prices can be found HERE.
