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ComediHa! to hold Montreal comedy festival in July

ComedieHa! announced it would host a comedy festival in Montreal in July 2024. (Source: Instagram/@comediha) ComedieHa! announced it would host a comedy festival in Montreal in July 2024. (Source: Instagram/@comediha)
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The ComediHa! group has announced that it will offer 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.

To mark 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 close to $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" led to Wednesday's announcement that a comedy event would be held in Montreal this summer.

"It would have been inconceivable for our metropolis not to have a festival worthy of the name this summer. It didn't take long for public and private partners to mobilize and make 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 of Quebec's cultural sector in the lurch.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 8, 2024.  

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