PARC JEAN-DRAPEAU — Mayor Denis Coderre unveiled a project to build a 65,000-seat amphitheatre in the park on Ile-Ste-Helene.
“There will be an amazing legacy,” Coderre said.
“Parc Jean-Drapeau is part of that solution to enhance the legacy of the greatest metropolis of the world.”
The amphitheatre will look like an oblong oval, and city officials say it will allow for four-season events such as concerts. It would also serve as the permanent home for Montreal’s summer festivals. The venue’s cost will be around $70 million, split between the city and the province.
The plan originally was to build the amphitheatre to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Expo ’67 and the 375th anniversary of the city’s founding. Because of a tender issue that resulted in the firing of several executives of the company that manages the park in 2013, it won’t be completed until 2018.
“There was some fling flang in the contracts process,” Coderre said.
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“So what am I gonna say? Am I going to say we’re not going to do anything about it, or am I going to say it might take a bit longer but at the end of the day you’ll have fantastic infrastructure.”
Some tourists have complained that it’s difficult to find their way around the park, and look at the amphitheatre as a possible useful landmark.
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