🍦 REM delays, ghost stories, garlic farms and the Weeknd

Bonjour-hi to you today mon ami / amie,

Picture this: post-park yoga bliss in Verdun, awkwardly wedging into a mat-circle of strangers. Just as I settled in and exchanged hellos, I felt mysterious droplets on my leg. Rain from a clear blue sky? Nope.

A squirrel, perched directly above, had marked me as its territory. Sometimes connection comes in the most unexpected forms; even when it's slightly wet and deeply mortifying.

In this week’s issue…

• 🏙️ City News: REM South shut down & Jacques-Cartier bridge closure; plan your week!

• 💗 Feel-Good: Solidarity markets & prefab senior housing; dignity and hope in action.

• 🤲 Non-Profit: Garlic, community, and intergenerational impact; volunteer with Santropol Roulant.

• 🍽️ Food: $5 bites, $9 tacos, and a Korean street fest; wallet-friendly flavour bombs.

• 👩‍🔬 People of MTL: Maëva Botrel on joy, sextech, and why kids should design the future.

• 🎟️ Events: From K-pop dance battles to ghost walks and wedding gowns; plan your weekend.

• 🎶 Live Music: Weeknd, Postmodern Jukebox, candlelit 90s, and Reddit chaos with Smosh.

Written by: Paolo M., Sophie B., Macy H.

CITY NEWS

🏙️ What's Happening Around Town

1. Montréal’s REM South-Shore branch is fully shut until August 17 for testing as the network readies for western and northern expansions. The transit authority has added free shuttle buses to help commuters, but expect travel to downtown to take twice as long. Riders are advised to plan ahead, use OPUS cards, and consider telework.

2. On July 24, the Jacques-Cartier Bridge will be fully closed to vehicles from about 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. as La Ronde’s fireworks and The Weeknd’s concert coincide. STM urges attendees to plan transit trips early, buy roundtrip fares in advance.

FEEL GOOD

💗 Stories That Make Me Fall In Like With This City

Montreal's West Island is tackling food insecurity through innovative "pay-what-you-can" solidarity markets. Corbeille de Pain's program offers fresh, mostly organic local produce using social pricing that preserves shopping dignity regardless of financial situation. Operating across multiple locations through October, these community-driven markets serve over 20,000 residents, proving that collective action creates meaningful change.

Dorval's 82-unit affordable senior housing project at 750 Dawson Avenue brings hope amid the housing crisis. The $32.6-million "Habitations Les Îles Courcelles" serves 120 registered seniors seeking subsidized housing. Using innovative prefabricated wooden modules, this walkable development could model future affordable housing across the region.

NON-PROFIT

🤲 A Cause Just Cause

Santropol Roulant

Garlic Harvest Volunteer Opportunity: Community Farm Day

Santropol Roulant invites PlayMTL readers to join their special garlic harvest volunteer shifts at the Senneville farm this week for the Annual Garlic Harvest and Community Farm Day.

About Santropol Roulant

Santropol Roulant is a pioneering Montreal-based intergenerational community food hub that has been transforming lives through food since 1995. Founded by Christopher Godsall and Keith Fitzpatrick, two waiters from Café Santropol who sought meaningful work in their community, the organization began with a simple yet powerful vision: connecting youth and seniors through an innovative meals-on-wheels service.

What makes Santropol Roulant truly unique is its holistic approach to community building. The organization operates Canada's only meals-on-wheels service that grows its own food, delivering over 430,000 meals to seniors and individuals living with a loss of autonomy while providing meaningful employment and volunteer opportunities for young people. Their mission centres on using food as a vehicle to break social and economic isolation between generations, creating "a vibrant intergenerational community brought together by food and community engagement".

FOOD

🍽️ Food & Drink Buzz

🍸 Bar Bon Délire
A bar with a free popcorn machine, cheetah print pool table, and retro booths. A chill hole-in-the-wall bar perfect for a first date or sipping and yapping with your girls. If you’re feeling brave, try the pickle shot. If you’re feeling hungry, all food is $5 after 11PM!

🍢 Korean Street Market – Pocha MTL
From July 24–27, check out Pocha, Montreal’s own Korean street food fest in the Bassin Peel. Choose from sizzling eats, soju cocktails, and late-night vibes straight from Seoul.

🌮 Chapul Quebec
Cheap eats for the win! Everything at Chapul Quebec is just $9, and the portions are HUGE. You read that right, EVERYTHING. Fresh, authentic tostadas, tacos, burritos, birria, cocktails and more. Plus Fridays and Saturdays, there’s live music from 8 PM to 3 AM, so you can dance salsa, bachata, and merengue all night (and morning) long!

PEOPLE OF MONTREAL / GENS D’ICI

🧍Maëva Botrel — Building the future with the minds that imagine it best—our children.

Born in Brittany, Maëva has always been drawn to creating what’s missing. After years in Paris' startup scene, she launched France’s first sextech event; sparking a national conversation without compromising her values. “We refused to work with the porn industry. We wanted to bring joy, art, and innovation into sexuality.”

The real magic? The team. “It wasn’t work—it was love and flow,” she says. That spirit now drives her next mission: building a future with and for children. A moment that shaped her: an 8-year-old at a Montreal event drew a human with a nose filter, because in his vision, we could no longer breathe clean air. “That shook me. Kids see the world clearly, and we’re not listening.”

She’s building a platform where children co-create with adults to solve real-world challenges, from healthcare to sustainability. “They have no limits to their imagination. We must stop underestimating that.”

A mother, strategist, MBA grad, and nonprofit builder, Maëva juggles three jobs—but leads with heart. She remembers a homeless man in a train station who smiled at everyone. “He chose to be homeless because the world didn’t satisfy him. He made art. I still remember his smile.”

Her message?
Just try. With all your love. Even if it doesn’t take now, it will later. You’ll be remembered as the one who brings joy.

EVENTS

🎟️🎪 Weekend Plans That Don't Suck

Thursday (July 24)

FRIDAY (July 25)

SATURDAY (July 26)

SUNDAY (July 27)

LIVE MUSIC

🎶 You’re Still Up?

• 🎤 The Weeknd – After Hours ’Til Dawn Tour
  Parc Jean‑Drapeau | July 24–25 · doors 17 h 30, show 19 h
  Stadium-level production with Playboi Carti & Mike Dean

• 🎷 Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox – Magic & Moonlight Tour
  Théâtre Rialto | July 24 · doors 19 h, show 20 h
  Big-band jazz-pop revamps of today’s hits

• 😂 Smosh Reads Reddit Stories – Live
  L’Olympia | July 26 · doors 15 h, show 16 h
  Comedic storytelling meets live show chaos

• 🕯️ Candlelight: 90s Unplugged (String Quartet)
  Le 9e | July 26 · 20 h 45
  Nirvana, Radiohead & more reimagined by string quartet and candlelight

• 🎤 Katy Perry – The Lifetimes Tour (just outside the week)
  Bell Centre | July 30 · doors 18 h, show 19 h
  Pop spectacle featuring Rebecca Black

OUTRO

Well I had fun, did you? If you found something useful, share it with a friend. If you didn’t, share it with that one person who interrupts every damn time before you can finish your senten-until next week,

In our effort to promote more local businesses and services we will be asking our community what they’d like to see more of here.