Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville
Various Venues
Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada
May 19-22, 2022

The weekend of May 19-22, was the first time since 2019 that artistic director Michel Levasseur and the team at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV, or Victo, as it is popularly known) were able to mount a full program of concerts and other presentations (sound installations, films) without tight pandemic restrictions. This meant that, unlike last year, musicians and music lovers from outside Quebec and Canada were able to attend the festival and participate in its various activities.

Apart from being able to attend a full program, the weekend gave those who come to Victo every year the chance to reconnect with friends from across the border and overseas, which is a pleasure as great as the opportunity to hear music at a festival dedicated to the highest-quality presentation of music.

The lineup was impressive on paper, but it's never a sure thing that potential will be realized—and that's not a bad thing. FIMAV is a festival of adventurous music, and failures are often remembered as well, if not as fondly, as successes. That said, this year's edition of the festival more than lived up to expectations.

FIMAV is a world unto itself for the four days of the festival, but the real world does intrude from time to time, this year in the cancellation of two performances, one by Spanish artist Fatima Miranda and the other by the Ukrainian singing group Dakh Daughters, who were slated to perform on the first evening. In the first case, Japanese voice artist