ComediHa! will host comedy festival in Montreal this summer
Posted May 9, 2024 10:29 am.
The ComediHa! group has announced that it will be offering several activities in Montreal at the end of July before its flagship event in Quebec City.
The group had already indicated that it would be taking over the musical “Waitress” after reaching an agreement with the rights holders and Just for Laughs.
On the 25th anniversary of ComediHa! Fest, the group announced on Wednesday that it would be “saluting Montreal” from July 18 to 28, with a budget for the Montreal event of nearly $10 million.
In a separate press release, the federal government announced its “commitment to support ‘ComediHa! salutes Montreal,'” indicating that it would reveal “the details of this support” at a later date.
The program, which will include “comedy shows, galas and free outdoor performances,” will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
The “ComediHa! salue Montréal” festival will take place at the Place des Festivals, in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles, Place des Arts, Espace St-Denis and Théâtre du Vieux-Terrebonne.
Following confirmation that there would be no “Just for Laughs” festival in 2024, the ComediHa! group maintained that “concerted action by numerous stakeholders and partners” had led to Wednesday’s announcement that a comedy event would be held in Montreal this summer.
“It would have been inconceivable for our city not to have a festival worthy of the name this summer. Public and private partners quickly got involved and made it possible,” said Sylvain Parent-Bédard, President and CEO of ComediHa!
The “Just for Laughs” group announced in March that it had filed for bankruptcy under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, leaving many artists and organizations that had signed agreements with this flagship company in Quebec’s cultural sector in the lurch.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
