Monkland Village

The Monkland Village festival is pretty decent with local establishments showcasing what they’re all about in front of their stores, as well as other venues coming by and doing the same thing as well. You can now find some food trucks at this event and enjoy some grub on the go. There’s also a children’s park as well.
You can pretty much visit the entire place in about half an hour, from end to end.
It’s nothing to write home about or drive long distances for but if you’re a local or are someone with not much to do, this can be an interesting visit. The festival does tend to last a few days, so plenty of time to get it and enjoy some shows.
Biggest issue though? Parking, it’s not easy to say the least but with some persistence, you can get lucky.

what is monkland village? it’s a commercial area of monkland that stretches from girouard to draper that is closed to traffic when it’s festival time (they only have 2 this year and this one, F1 fest, being their very first fest)
the grand prix fest sounded interesting as people tweet about it and it was featured on cbc montreal as THE alternative during grand prix weekend if you don’t want to hit the tourist traps. turns out, it’s a bunch of bollocks!
to give an idea, it is as interesting as italian week in little italy. great idea on paper but the execution ends up being catastrophic. a load of hype but like a lot of montreal fests, all talk no show!
what were the interesting spots? barely nothing worth mentioning except the already well reviewed places like prohibition, ta pies, melk café and typhoon lounge. outside of them, it’s a bunch of franchises that offer nothing new. yes, there’s st-​viateur bagel café but if you are near mile-​end or le plateau, you shouldn’t be going out of your way for the NDG location.
there’s léché desserts stand and their cream puffs that was the highlight of the fest though.
outside of all that, you had food trucks which created the buzz for monkland F1 fest. zoe and her pulled chicken was good but missing flavor. lucille’s lobster roll and fish taco were tasty but expensive. and the famous pas d’cochon dans mon salon pulled pork which is the best in term of portion and price. only thing missing was some slaw instead of iceberg lettuce.
summary: if you are in the neighborhood, go have fun and try out the food trucks. if you are nowhere near NDG, don’t bother unless you want to admire the residential area (which is really beautiful) or you were making a trek to prohibition