Ever hear bagpipes near the Jacques Cartier Bridge? Meet the man behind the music
It's a surprise for drivers stuck in traffic heading towards the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
Almost every day during the afternoon rush hour, Ryan Kavanagh practices his bagpipes in the median between Papineau Avenue's northbound and southbound lanes.
"It's a very polarizing sound, but I feel like everyone has to love the bagpipes deep down somewhere? Right?" he asks.
Kavanagh moved to downtown Montreal last year from Kingston, Ontario. "I never tried playing indoors because my first thought was 'I don't want to get evicted,'" he told CTV News. "I once tried playing in Lafontaine and someone came and chased me away."
Many drivers who stopped at the light just stare at him as he plays. Others honk and wave.
"I haven't gotten any complaints yet," Kavanagh said.
He chose that median because it's not a residential area, and the sound of the pipes is often masked by traffic.
"You can't change the volume, the bagpipes are just loud all the time."
It's so loud, that it's audible in the CTV Montreal newsroom at the corner of Rene Levesque Boulevard and Papineau Avenue.
"I was just sitting at my computer working and focused on what I was doing when part of my brain picked up on the fact that, 'I think I'm hearing bagpipes,'" recalls CTV Montreal produce Dale Crockett.
"I walked down Papineau and there was this guy on a grassy knoll playing his bagpipes. It was the strangest thing."
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