Les FrancoFolies de Montréal is a large annual music and performance festival held in Downtown Montreal, Quebec, featuring over 1,000 French-language performers from all over the world, as well as attracting over 500,000 visitors.
Many of the performances are free to the public and are held on various stages in and around the Place des Arts section of Montreal's "Centre-ville." Other performances are held at nearby theaters and require that tickets to be purchased to attend.
In contrast to the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, also held during the summer months, the FrancoFolies focuses on popular music performed chiefly in the French language or by performers from Francophone countries. Musical styles such as rock, pop, chanson, hip-hop, rai, folk, punk, and many others are featured during the festival's nearly two-week run.
The festival was established in 1989 by:
Having run for more than 20 years, the FrancoFolies festival is considered to be the largest musical extravaganza in the French-speaking world.
The festival normally runs from late July to early August each year. However, the 22nd edition of the festival was moved to an earlier date, June 10–19, 2010. This change of date will allow more performers from France to attend the festival and will allow the FrancoFolies to "get a jump start" on Montreal's busy summer festival season.