Mural fest transforms Saint-Laurent Boulevard into an open-air Plateau art gallery

Montreal's annual Mural Festival transforms Saint-Laurent Boulevard - The Main - into a two-week street party with artists' creations coming to life.

A sure sign of summer is when Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal’s Plateau is closed for traffic from Sherbrooke Street to Mont-Royal Avenue.

All along “The Main,” shops, kiosks, and stages are set up on the street as festival season kicks into high gear.

For 10 days, the two-kilometre stretch of road is open to pedestrians for a street party.

The 14th edition of the Mural Festival means blank walls being filled with creativity.

The artists who gave us the “MeMe La Main” mural on Pine Avenue East are already working on a bigger, manga-inspired, comic book adventure scene.

“We decided to do kind of a comic strip book, like a book with an adventure character and everything like that,” said muralist “Fuse.”

Another muralist named Zek is nearby with a brush, working acrylic paint into the cracks and crevices of an old wall to create a whole new vista. Spray paint will be layered on later, as the mural is expected to take two weeks to create.

“The other side will be more warm colours,” he said. ”So, as we get in with the warm colours and the cold colours there will be a nice mix, I think is going to come out great.”

Visitors along The Main can watch the murals going up in real time.

“People can also enjoy being part of that creation,” said Fuse.

The Mural Festival runs until June 14.