Le Week-end Rouge is a commemoration in song and music of a social drama that marked the residents of Montreal's Centre-Sud district 50 years ago, through a two-movement piece for choir, seven soloists, oboe, euphonium, organ, percussion and invented string instruments.

The concert highlights the social and historical aspects of this event. The intention is in no way denunciatory, but rather a poetic illustration, in song and music, of the need for rapprochement that people feel in the context of disasters or bad weather.

7:30 p.m. - Parc Pierre-Bourgault, rue Alexandre-DeSève
First part of the outdoor concert, at Parc Pierre-Bourgault

8 p.m. - Église du Sacré-Cœur-de-Jésus, rue Ontario
For the second part of the concert, the public is invited to join us at the Église du Sacré-Cœur-de-Jésus, located on Ontario Street between Plessis and Alexandre-DeSève.

Between October 31 and November 3, 1974, several fires broke out in the Centre-Sud district, in connection with the Montreal firefighters' strike. Following Mayor Jean Drapeau's refusal to comply with its demands, the firefighters' union opted for a radical means of pressure: setting several fires, in the same area, on the same weekend. As a result of this action, seventeen fires and around 200 affected families were counted in the Centre-Sud district. Throughout the “Red Weekend” and in the weeks that followed, these families were welcomed at the Sacré-Cœur-de-Jésus church, while waiting to be rehoused. Many of the burned lots, long abandoned, have now become small parks, giving the Centre-Sud neighborhood its unique character.

The photo of the event was taken during the Week-end rouge, on October 31, 1974, by Gaétan M. Today, this site is the “Espace Pierre-Bourgault” park, where the first part of the concert will take place. In the background, we can see the Sacré-Coeur-de-Jésus church, where disaster-stricken families took refuge at the time, and where the public will go on November 2, for the second part of the concert.

Below, a photo of the Grand Chœur du Centre-Sud at Sacré-Coeur-de-Jésus church.