A view of the Montreal Old Port from the Saint Lawrence River on a summer day.
A new Montreal music festival claims to be bringing Doja Cat, Harry Styles and SZA to the Old Port this June. Its Instagram page has hundreds of followers. The one problem: the festival is fake. The Vieux-Port de Montréal has confirmed that the event, dubbed Festival Aurora, is fraudulent.
"We learned about this festival like the general public, through social media and their online platform," Vieux-Port spokesperson Kaven Gauthier told MTL Blog.
"A festival with such popular names would have to be planned months in advance and neither the SVPM nor the other partners on our territory (Port-de-Montréal / Grand Quai) were approached."
Festival Aurora Instagram posts advertising headliners.@festivalauroramtl | Instagram
The festival advertises financial backing from American Express and Pepsi.
American Express has confirmed it has nothing to do with it, either. Its head of corporate affairs and communications, Lauren Dineen-Duarte, told MTL Blog that the event doesn't have permission to use the Amex logo.
Online, Festival Aurora organizers, an entity called Groupe Cenari, describe the event as a "new avant-garde experience" for Millennials and members of Gen Z. Also among its purported acts are Khalid, Charli XCX, Tyler the Creator, FKA Twigs, and Troye Sivan.
Advertised ticket prices range from CA$275 to $350 for general admission and $425 to $650 for the VIP experience.
Festival Aurora Instagram posts advertising headliners and ticket prices.@festivalauroramtl | Instagram
The Vieux-Port de Montréal is encouraging Montrealers "not to make any transactional operations on the online platform," Gauthier said.
MTL Blog has reached out to Groupe Cenari for a comment on this story. They did not reply before publication.
