and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

It was a show-stopper of a weekend out of many summer weekends up in Montreal this July 4th and I can only begin to describe the craziness that is a city on fire.

Not only did the Montreal International Jazz Festival start last week but the International Fireworks Competition is ongoing, the Carribbean parade ran through the city, it was Canada Day weekend (as well as U.S. Independance Day), and and and it was the Euro2004 soccer finals that had the underdog Greek team beat out host team Portugal to cause quite a ruckus on the streets. Greek flags flew from every vehicle as the streets clogged up with honking horns and screaming fans. Even Porteguese fans poured into the street.

Montreal is a city that is unafraid to block off major traffic arteries for the sake of art. Montreal is a city with no fear of large crowds - so much so that they'll serve beer in the streets with nary a hint of underage drink control.

So when the Funk Brothers came to town - a group of musicians that backed practically every hit to come out of the motown scene - they set up a special stage (in addition to the 6 or 7 that already existed in the 4 square block downtown core), a few big screens, some emergency exit corridors along the edges of the streets, and about 150,000 people showed up to enjoy the good times.

And enjoy they did.

100

and

50

Thousand.

Afterwards people poured up onto St. Laurent street and filled the bars and although it was a Sunday night you wouldn't have known it to look at Montreal, the true city that never sleeps.

Montreal was warm all over with a nice breeze to cool your skin so that when you got home at 5am you were feeling nice and clean and you could climb into bed without a need for a shower.

And as if nature knew about the show the clouds rolled in over night so that Monday it could rain, thunder, lightening, and wash away the mess..

And then Montreal remembered.. The jazz festival just started. We've a whole 'nother week to go.

Plus the St. Laurent street sale..

Plus the Just For Laughs comedy festival..

Plus the International Film Festival..

As if the list had an end in sight.