The Bulletin: October is giving us too many good options [Issue #151]

Another week in Montreal, another lineup of reasons to leave the house.

Dust off those jackets as October settles in, because this edition is absolutely stacked with things worth braving the chill outside, and this time the selection is touching on just about every subculture you can think of.

We're barely scratching the surface here, but: Ska bands sweating it out, vinyl collectors digging through crates, cinnamon roll pop-ups, ramen shops competing for your votes, your last chance to see Medieval knights, riding a mechanical bull, and doing your civic duty at events like nightlife town halls and neighbourhood cleanups. It is wholesome and energetic and pensive and appetizing all at the same time.

Scroll through, pick your nights, and we'll see you out there.

Activities, parties, points of interest, art exhibitions, you name it: These are the weekend events you don't want to miss.

Thursday

🎧 Ic3y Mag calls all D’angelo fans to bask in Foil Gallery’s immersive room for a commemorative listening experience of  “Brown Sugar,” the R&B musician’s debut.

🎨 Discover the next wave of contemporary art at artch, where emerging artists take over downtown with photography, sculpture, edible art, performance, and more

🎧 DJ Andie joins Ferias as they spin at Datcha—join the party for a night guaranteeing the freshest tracks on the dancefloor. 

🌃 Dialogue sur la vie nocturne invites Montrealers to an open discussion on how to build nights that are more vibrant, accessible, and resilient with local candidates and community voices.

Friday

🎺 The Montreal Ska Festival takes over Petit Campus and Turbo Haüs October 16–18, swapping guitars for horns with local heroes and out-of-town bands for three nights of sweaty, joyful, skanking chaos.

📖 The Intercultural Storytelling Festival returns with nearly 60 shows across cafés, theatres, and libraries, where artists from around the world weave myth, memory, and history into performances.

🫧🧴 Lvnea Perfume hosts their fifth annual Autumn Night Market with a wide array of local artisans offering unique creations—as well as first access to the perfumery’s seasonal fragrances. 

🖼️ Saudade, the first solo show by photographer Maiko Rodrig, opens with a vernissage curated by Alexandre OR Boucher—haunting images that trace memory and longing back to Brazil.

🌱 Eco-Art Workshops hosts their latest crafting event at Phoenix Books, inviting all community members to create textile pocket altars honouring our relationships to plant-life. 

🗣️ Catch Night in Key’s latest guest speaker– cultural curator and story teller Rito Joseph for an evening exploring the rich history and vibrant stories of Montreal’s Afro community.

Saturday

💿 Vinyl heads unite at Église Saint-Denis, where over 30 vendors spin out crates of LPs, 45s, and hidden gems in a one-day fair.

📝🎪 Scatterbrain Magazine brings a taste of a contemporary carnivalesque for their 6th issue launch party featuring live art-making, jesters roaming about, vendors, and a program full of live music. 

🛼📼 It’s time to don neon and tease your hair—2656 Saloon is throwing an ‘80s dance party and invites you to sing and dance all night to the most electric tunes of the decade. 

🧹☕ Get involved with the community with Little Italy’s neighbourhood cleanup– gloves, brooms, coffee, and pastries all provided. 

⏯️ Hidden Gems turns 4 and invites you to celebrate with a full night of nostalgic throwbacks from the MySpace and Limewire era.

🎵🍉 Parquette joins forces with Slut Island Festival for 24 hours of live DJ sets with proceeds going directly towards anti-imperialist media and Palestinians facing legal charges. 

🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Café Even collaborates with Tiempos clothing brand—shop the new collection and customize a Tiempos t-shirt before a 6km run club. 

🎭 Catch the matinée of White Lion, Brown Tiger, a black comedy that brings intracultural tensions and racial politics to the forefront of theatre while exploring interconnected themes of toxic masculinity, workplace racism, trauma, and perfomative allyship.

Sunday

⚔️ Step into the Middle Ages at Pointe-à-Callière’s Knights, an immersive exhibition of over 250 Italian artifacts—armour, weapons, and courtly relics that reveal the artistry and ritual behind medieval life.

🖋️ The Postcards from Montreal workshop is a guided step-by-step process of linocutting from sketching, transferring an image, engraving, and finally to printing. 

🪔 Don’t miss the last night of Time Out Market’s first ever Diwali edition, complete with Bollywood dance performances, participatory workshops for the whole family, a DJ, and entertainment. 

🗳️ Get your free tickets for Monday’s debate at Montreal’s Town Hall for the upcoming mayoral election where pressing topics such as housing, mobility, and the environment will be discussed. 

🎤 It’s open mic night at Café des Habitudes—get out of your comfort zone and recite poetry, play a song, or even perform a dance number and inspire other community members. 

🌿 Learn all about natural textile dyeing with Le Craupad’s free workshop and explore all the colours plants have to offer for your next DIY project.

🧥 WINTER FASHION SHOW X ROYALMOUNT ❄️

See Fall & Winter collections from eight brands—Boss, Mackage, Moose Knuckles, Rudsak, Quartz Co., Michael Kors, Sports Experts, and M/2 Boutiques—alongside upcoming seasonal wear from Rennaï and Tom Ford at a ROYALMOUNT event soundtracked by a live Milk & Bone performance and a DJ.

Watch from a heated terrasse, get up close in the Urban Park, or reserve a table at Balam for runway-adjacent dining.

Come see what's worth wearing this winter on October 23 at 7 p.m.!

WHAT TO EAT & DRINK IN AND AROUND MONTREAL

Scope the latest restaurant openings, recommendations on where to eat, plus new menus, old classics, and everything in between.

Tickets are going fast for Canada’s Great Kitchen Party at Le Mount Stephen on Oct 29, where five of Montreal’s top chefs face off for culinary glory and a good cause.

Mitch Deli serves a French Alpine inspired menu, with comfort foods such as raclette, charcuterie, gherkins, pickled onions and Jean-Yves Péron wines on Oct 16.

Indulge in an exclusive tasting night at Brasserie Blandino for bold flavours and textures on Oct 16, where Flor de Caña rum gets paired with Jeff de Bruges chocolates.

Soyle transforms their showroom into a café with coffee from local roasters, pastries and a series of workshops featuring voices from Montreal’s creative café and design community on On Oct 16-17.

Le Vin dans les voiles celebrates 10 years with an array of local winemakers at Le Réservoir on Oct 17. 

Wesosay’s next sonic seasoning combines Carribean fusion with live soulful melodies on Oct. 18.

Ramen is back at La Sala Rossa from Oct 17 to 19, serving warm and savory bowls from Chef Shota.

Spaghetti Western marks two years on Plaza St-Hubert on Oct 17 & 18 with a two-night blowout of line dancing, DJs, a mechanical bull, and cheap beer.

Saturday Cafe’s pop up takes over Maps pizzeria for an afternoon of slices, espresso tinis, coffee, and Kate’s cookies on Oct 18. 

Microbrasserie Mutoïde celebrates its 5th anniversary on Oct 18 with a full menu of well-stocked beer and food for everyone– vegan options included. 

Jinjin joins Seconde Vintage for their latest pop-up with one-time-only matcha drinks and some backyard shopping on Oct 18. 

Junco turns one on Oct 19 and is celebrating with a live DJ, gourmet bites (beloved foca-pizza included) and a few surprises. 

Bistro La Franquette collaborates with Fat Rabbit’s chef Zack Smith for a 5 course meal on Oct 19.

Sip, snack, and savour at Verdun Beef on Oct 19 for 10 wine tasting buckets for 10$, good food and music.

French winery Domaine Les Eminades takes over Le Majestique on Oct 19 for a post-Raspipav celebration with glasses, bottles, and flights—something for every wine lover.

Claire Jacques debuts their first Literary Aperitif on Oct 19 with a mini book fair with local authors, bites, cocktails and lively conversation. 

Recently recognized Michelin and Toronto-Armenian restaurant Taline comes to Montreal for a special collaboration with Segreta on Oct 19 serving dishes blending Lebanese and Armenian flavors. 

Bye Bye Ramen pairs up with Herman Brasserie for a pop-up, warm up on the terrace on Oct 19 with bowls of Tonkotsu and Miso Soup ramen. 

Moncinno launches their first pop-up ever with freshly baked cinnamon rolls and coffee on Oct 19-20. 

Sun Ramen's latest pop up will be at Restaurant Lawrence on Oct 19-20 serving chicken-based shoyu ramen and a rich pork, clam & chicken Tsukemen, all made with handmade noodles and served with beers and cocktails from La Brasserie San-Ô.

Pumpui hosts a fundraising dinner to fund cancer treatment with a Belgian menu on Oct 20. 

🍜 Ramen Ramen Fes returns

From October 13 to 26, Montreal’s citywide ramen crawl is back—two weeks of slurping, voting, and arguing over which broth reigns supreme.

Now in its fourth edition, Ramen Ramen Fes gathers some of the city’s best ramen chefs (and a few wildcard contenders) for a friendly, flavour-packed showdown. Each restaurant rolls out a one-off bowl—from creamy tonkotsu to vegan miso—and you decide the winner. Just show up, eat, and vote online.

👉 Read The Main’s full guide and plan your noodle crawl. 👈

Here, you'll find a weekly round-up of the latest local news, from entertainment to current affairs and more.

Montreal released its first nightlife policy in 2024, but venues keep closing anyway—it's like 10 to 15 individual residents still hold the city's entire music scene hostage through noise complaints and bylaws from the 1970s. Read more.

A Netflix doc asks who killed the Expos, but it's really about grief—20 years later, Montreal still wears the logo of a team that had baseball's best record before a strike and fire sale took it all away. Read more.

Five queer women gutted the old Blue Dog Motel in five weeks, installed disco balls that "look like vaginas when they reflect," and opened Club DD's to lines around the block. Read more.

Sydnee Wilson hauls grain and checks temps at 4 Origines—one of only a handful of female brewers in Montreal—reclaiming a craft women pioneered for millennia before being erased from its history. Read more.

After four years feeding rock stars New York-style pizza at Osheaga, Elena's opened a 500-square-foot corner slice shop in Griffintown. Read more.

24 Stanley Cups and a riot over Maurice Richard's suspension turned the Canadiens into Quebec's religion—then came 32 years without a championship and fans who still pack the Bell Centre anyway. Read more.

Chef David Alfred's pasta at Bona Fide is excellent, but three servers with wildly different skills and acoustics so brutal you'll be reading lips make a $370 bill feel unfinished. Read more.

An hour from Quebec City, Baie-Saint-Paul's got Highland cattle outside your hotel, natural wine at Buvette Gentille, and a rhythm that turns one weekend into plans for the next. Read more.

Montreal's bike lanes now move 132 cyclists past 82 gridlocked cars in ten minutes—under Mayor Valérie Plante, a fifth of Plateau trips happen on two wheels, turning the humble bicycle into North America's most disruptive transport tech and a mayoral election flashpoint. Read more.

Youppi! went from Expos mascot to Canadiens icon across six decades and two leagues, earning a Mascot Hall of Fame spot and a grip on Montreal's heart that outlasted the baseball team itself. Read more.

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And that wraps yet another weekly bulletin. We’ll be back with more curiosities, local stories, and events to discover next week.

If ever you catch something we should know, don't hesitate to reach out to us on Instagram.

👋 Masthead: Philip Tabah, Founder & Head of Creative / Daniel Bromberg, Co-Founder & Head of Operations / Jean-Philippe Lauzon, Co-Founder & Head of Tech / JP Karwacki, Managing Editor / Amber Spector, Social Media Manager / Anahi Pellathy, Editorial & Production Coordinator / Phylida Tuff-West, Editorial Intern / Kaitlyn DiBartolo, Editorial Intern / Jeremy Cox, Editorial Intern