UnPop Montreal

UnPop Montreal is an annual music festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The festival typically occurs at the end of August or early September. UnPop Montreal started as a weekend long event featuring unknown bands. It has since grown into a two-week party known for hosting free live shows featuring some of Montreal's best-known underground bands - and a few underdogs.

The name of the festival was inspired in reaction to Pop Montreal.

The first festival was in 2005, born from a rant in the local alternative weekly, The Montreal Mirror by Nathan Munn. Munn took issue with the common practice by other festivals (i.e. Pop Montreal and NXNE) of charging application fees to bands. He felt that many unknown or unpopular acts would be overlooked by the festival's selection committees. He charged bias selection practices favoring friends and well established acts over local talent. Those local acts that were selected, were often paired with larger acts as openers for shows with steep ticket prices (why this is problematic should be clarified).

In reaction to these practices, Munn founded the UnPop festival. The festival's mandate includes a first-come, first-served application process with no fee. Further, the events are free of charge and open to the public.

In 2005, Munn and a few friends started contacting venues and plead online and in local weekly papers for bands to apply. Meanwhile, Munn's collaborator Sébastian Hell obtained corporate sponsorship from local microbreweries and small businesses. However, the festival came at an enormous out-of-pocket cost to both organizers.

With mounting costs, the 2006 festival was nearly cancelled. Fortunately, Pop Montreal founder, Daniel Seligman intervened, providing the festival with an outdoor stage for one day during Pop Montreal.

In 2007, Munn left UnPop. Total control of the festival was given to Sebastian Hell. The third edition of the festival is known as its most successful. However, once again, Hell was left with outrageous out-of-pocket expenses.

The 2008 festival was a scaled back version that took place in December. The change of date was to determine whether the festival's draw would increase if it did not compete directly with Pop Montreal. However, the festival was not nearly as successful as in previous year.

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Wikipedia