Crowds filled the sidewalks along rue St. Joseph on Sunday for the 10th annual Parade des jouets as Santa Claus came to town. Several new floats and groups added to the excitement of the festivities, all put together with the help of more than 350 volunteers. Once again this year, children were invited to tailgate with Santa at the beginning of the parade route before he took to the streets.

Photo: Bill Cox

This beautiful October day, warm and bright with sunlight, could not distract my attention to the even more brilliant works of the artist installed in Place Royale Square across from the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church in Old Quebec.

Photo: Thomas Shahan Wikipedia Creative Common

On September 21, the Quebec City Film Festival rolled into town. With it, the divisive director Larry Clark, who is responsible for Kids – an early 90s film about a group of Manhattan-based skateboarders, Bully, Wassup Rockers, and Ken Park, a film so provocative it is very rarely shown in North America.

The Quebec Art Company will be performing the musical “Guys and Dolls” this fall and is holding auditions for supporting roles and the chorus later this week (see details in the Community Calendar or visit www.quebecartcompany.com).  After directing the QAC’s production of “South Pacific” in 2009,

August 26 to September 17 - Quebec Celtic Festival is underway!. There will be a kiosk in Place Laurier where you can pick up a complete program and buy tickets for certain special events. Visit festivalceltique.com for complete details of the various activities and musical presentations.

Photo: Photo by Aurian Haller Band

The Aurian Haller Band will be performing at Le Cercle, at 228 rue St. Joseph Est, on Thursday, August 25 at 9:00 p.m. This will be their first concert in Quebec City since the launch of their latest album, Normal Town. LeZarts Studios is filming the show for Vox TV.

Good news for those of us who like to see movies in English. Le Clap has just announced it will be presenting the movie "The Tree of Life" in it's original English language version (VOA),  starting Monday, August 15.

Photo: Jay Ouellet

Over 100,000 fans gorged the Plains of Abraham on July 16 for a supershow that included Dance Larry Dance, guitarist Joe Satriani and Metallica.
For years, music lovers have been requesting that Metallica, a heavy metal band, perform at Summer Fest. Single-day passes for Saturday’s show sold out in a few days, a testament to the group’s strong Quebec following.

Recovery is the theme of MatièreS à création, a new exhibition displayed as part of AutocART, a project that puts the work of burgeoning artists on a bus and drives to public squares and schools. The AutocART bus appeared at the Garden St. Roch on June 27 and will turn up again at 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Saturday, July 16 at Cartier Brébeuf.

Last Thursday, the Parish of Quebec inaugurated a new summer concert series at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. The series of concerts has been put together by Béatrice Cadrin, Cathedral Choir Director, and showcases talent from the Quebec City region. The concerts have been made possible with the financial assistance of Desjardins, Caisse populaire de Québec.

Photo: Marie White

The Quebec Common Gaol is the latest historic exhibition in Quebec City. This exhibition depicts the life and times of the people who were imprisoned there, including men, women and children, between 1813 and 1868.

The General Director of Les Grands Feux Loto-Québec Jacques Dupuis recently announced the program of this year’s international fireworks show which takes place in the beautiful setting of Montmorency Falls Park with the falls themselves as a perfect natural backdrop.

Saturday, June 4, 8:00 p.m. – The twenty choristers of L’Ensemble de Musique Sacrée de Québec, directed by Richard Duguay, invite the public to a breathtaking and touching musical experience – ILLUMINATION. An a capella choral presentation giving life to great composers of different epoques in an electrifying repertoire.