Risky Whiskey: Lies, Whiskies and Other Dangers...

We've managed to crack some kind of code when it comes to fundraising events. The last few years we've been doing at least two per year: one in the middle of winter and one the week of the Festival.

Though they are an enormous amount of work, we almost always sell them out and manage to raise some funds for our educational programs and, of course, our Festival. And have a lot of fun in the process.

Last year we did Scotch & Fedoras which was a booming success (I still remember Jean-Francois Leduc dazzling the audience with a jazz-inspired reading of William T. Vollmann). And tonight we put on Risky Whiskey: Lies, Whiskies and other dangers....

There are literally two or three tickets left at most (they may be gone now because the last update I received was yesterday morning) so if you are a fan of whiskey, you might want to come check it out.

But it's only about the whiskey in part: the producer of the event is amazing: creative, intelligent, talented and, man, does he, Matt Zimbel, know what he's doing. And the host/emcee, too: Lyne Tremblay consistently wows our audience with her charm and originality.

Tonight it's going to be stories and anecdotes about whiskey drinking: the adventurous side of belting one on and whiskies from Japan, US and India. The show happens tonight at Monument National starting at 6pm. More information here.

It's not a marketing ploy, honestly: I do believe that the show is already sold out, though if this does sound like something that you might want to enjoy, contact us and see if it's possible to come warm your body with some of the best whiskies in the world while watching a funny and moving musical performance. We might be able to find another ticket or two... Nothing better to forget the winter blues than warming up in a friendly room full of whiskey lovers.

Blue Metropolis 2015 and some photos of 2014

So that's it. A few weeks of down time, and 2014 is crossed out. A new Festival is now in the works.

For 2015, the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival takes place from April 20 to 26, 2015. 

We already have a number of authors confirmed and a few exciting projects in the works.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone for making 2014 a raging success. The 16th edition of Blue Met involved 233 events in 9 languages with the participation of over 100 authors from 15 countries. For Blue Met produced and co-produced events, as well as events produced by our partners, we maxed out at 32,000 visits for Festival-related events. Wow!

More importantly, we increased the attendance of hotel-based events by a whopping 35%!

Those are great numbers, people!

What I always say, though, is that we can never really rest too comfortably as the pressure is on to top 2014 by an even more successful 2015.

Now a few photos:

Writer David Foenkinos and Rene Homier-Roy in conversation at Librairie Gallimard

Zombies at Bedtime Stories, our sold out fundraiser, Lion d'Or

Metropolis Azul winner Luis Alberto Urrea in conversation with Writers & Company's Eleanor Wachtel, Grande Bibliotheque

Michael Enright & 2014 Blue Metropolis Grand Prize winner, Richard Ford, Grande Bibliotheque