Montreal Music Festivals 2026: The 10 You Should Have on Your Calendar

Part of The Next Radio’s 2026 city-by-city festival map. Boston is next. More cities to follow.

Montreal does festivals the way other cities do brunch: relentlessly, ambitiously, and with a refusal to specialize. The 2026 season runs from early June to late November, takes over both the Quartier des spectacles downtown and Parc Jean-Drapeau across the river, and covers more genres than most cities cover in a decade. We start The Next Radio’s city-by-city festival map here in Montreal. Other cities will follow on their own posts; for now, ten festivals, in chronological order, with what you actually need to know and a quick TNR read on each.

1. Les Francos de Montréal · June 12 to 20

The 37th edition of the Francos (formerly Les FrancoFolies) lands in the Quartier des spectacles for nine days of francophone music across hip-hop, electro, folk, pop and rock. A pre-opening night at the Bell Centre on June 11 brings French rapper OrelSan to town. Most of the outdoor programming is free. On June 14, the Rogers stage hosts “Pour la suite du Dôme”, a tribute to Jean Leloup’s iconic Le Dôme on its 30th anniversary.

TNR read: if you live in Montreal and skip the Francos, you are letting one of the best free music programs in North America walk past you. Show up at least once.

2. Festival International de Jazz de Montréal · June 25 to July 4

The 46th edition of FIJM books more than 350 concerts, two-thirds of them free, across ten days in the Quartier des spectacles. The 2026 headline list reads like a fantasy bill: Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire, St. Vincent, Max Richter, Diana Krall, WILLOW, Smino, Patrick Watson, plus deep-catalog jazz names like Kamasi Washington, the Charles Lloyd Quartet, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Tortoise, Marcus Miller, and DOMi & JD Beck.

TNR read: the lineup keeps drifting away from straight-ahead jazz into a wider improvisational and crossover scene, which is exactly why it stays the most musically curious festival in town.

3. Festival International Nuits d’Afrique · July 7 to 19

Thirteen days of music from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, with more than 700 artists across six concert venues, two outdoor stages, and over 150 free and paid activities. It is the city’s biggest world-music event and one of its most underrated festivals among English-speaking audiences.

TNR read: this is where you discover the artist you spend the next year evangelizing about. Treat it as discovery time rather than a list of headliners to chase.

4. Osheaga Music and Arts Festival · July 31 to August 2

The 19th edition of Montreal’s flagship multi-genre festival fills Parc Jean-Drapeau across three days. Twenty One Pilots headline Friday, Tate McRae headlines Saturday, Lorde closes Sunday. The supporting bill includes The xx, Clipse, Turnstile, Gunna, Little Simz, Major Lazer, Empire of the Sun, Franz Ferdinand and over 100 more across multiple stages. The 2026 lineup features 26 Canadian acts, 14 of them from Quebec.

TNR read: Osheaga is the city’s biggest festival by attendance and by reach. Even if the headliners are not your favorites in any given year, the undercard is consistently the most useful place in town to take the pulse of where pop, hip-hop and indie rock are crossing over.

5. Heavy Montréal · July 31

Heavy MTL returns to Parc Jean-Drapeau the same weekend as Osheaga. As of late May the full lineup was still rolling out. The festival has historically anchored Montreal’s metal and hard rock calendar with everything from classic-era thrash to modern progressive bills, and 2026 looks set to continue that pattern.

TNR read: with the lineup partially under wraps, treat this as a save-the-date. Check heavymontreal.com weekly through June. If you cover hard rock seriously, you do not want to be caught flat-footed when the final bill drops.

6. îLESONIQ · August 8 and 9

The 11th edition of Montreal’s biggest electronic festival, two days at Parc Jean-Drapeau with an extra “îLESONIQ en ville” night in the city on August 7. Headline names include Dom Dolla, Chris Lake & Friends, Above & Beyond, Boris Brejcha, deadmau5 and Rezz. The bass-music corner books Sub Focus, ATLiens, Seven Lions, Wooli and a Layz b2b Kompany set. Fifty-one artists in total.

TNR read: îLESONIQ is the most ruthlessly programmed of the Parc Jean-Drapeau trilogy. If you only have time for one EDM weekend in your year, this is the safe bet for both production value and lineup density.

7. LASSO Montréal · August 15 and 16

The fifth anniversary of Montreal’s country music festival, also at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Thomas Rhett headlines Saturday with Jon Pardi, Koe Wetzel, Max McNown, The Band Perry and the James Barker Band on the same day. Mumford & Sons close out Sunday over a bill that includes Old Dominion, Turnpike Troubadours, Cameron Whitcomb, Carly Pearce and Jonah Kagen. Thirty-plus artists across three stages.

TNR read: LASSO has grown from a curiosity into a serious commercial country anchor in a city that historically wrote off the genre. The Mumford & Sons booking signals where the curation is heading: country-adjacent and Americana, not just radio Nashville.

8. MUTEK Montréal · August 25 to 30

Twenty-seventh edition of the city’s electronic music and digital arts festival, six days and nights across the Society for Arts and Technology, MTELUS, Maison Symphonique and Les Grands Ballets’ Studio-Theatre. Nearly 120 artists from 28 countries. The MUTEK Forum, the festival’s industry and ideas wing, runs August 26 to 28.

TNR read: MUTEK sits at the opposite end of the electronic spectrum from îLESONIQ. Here the focus is experimental, audiovisual and frequently academic. If you want to hear the next decade of electronic music being argued about in real time, this is the room.

9. POP Montreal · September 23 to 27

The 25th anniversary edition of the city’s indie festival, anchored in Mile End. The 2026 bill includes A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Chad VanGaalen, Luna, the British post-punk outfit High Vis, Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, Think About Life, Squirrel Flower, Nardwuar, Uffie and more. For the milestone year the festival is reopening the defunct St-Laurent venue Le Divan Orange, closed since 2017.

TNR read: POP Montreal is the festival that most reflects the city’s actual music ecology, independent labels, small venues, college radio, francophone and anglophone scenes side by side. Plan to wander between rooms rather than camp at one stage.

10. M for Montréal · November 19 to 22

The 20th anniversary of the city’s industry-focused showcase festival, spread across multiple venues. The first two days lean hard into industry programming and Official Selection showcases curated by labels and publications; Friday and Saturday open up into a full multi-venue public festival. Confirmed acts include Digable Planets, BADBADNOTGOOD, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, Kiwi Jr, Choses Sauvages, The Besnard Lakes, Colin Stetson, Hollerado and Karneef. Festival passes are CAD 75.

TNR read: M is the cheapest way to see thirty rising acts in four days inside venues smaller than your living room. It is also where labels and bookers are scouting, so the room will be full of people who are about to change someone’s career.

Honourable mentions

Piknic Électronik runs every Sunday (and a handful of Mondays) at Parc Jean-Drapeau from May 17 through October 18, twenty curated dates on the Fizz stage with the after-hours OfF Piknic series back for 2026. It is not a single-weekend festival, but for electronic-music fans living in Montreal it is the spine of the summer.

The bigger picture

Montreal’s 2026 calendar is unusually back-loaded compared to most major cities: instead of one giant week, the season opens with francophone and jazz in June, peaks with three back-to-back Parc Jean-Drapeau weekends from late July to mid-August, and then keeps rolling through MUTEK in late August, POP Montreal in September and M for Montréal in November. If you can only fit one trip into your year, late July to mid-August is statistically the densest window. If you live here, build your year around at least three of these. The next city on our 2026 festival map drops soon.