This year, the commemorative poster for the 2025 edition of the Fierté Montréal Festival is the work of Mel Perreault, also known as Melejuana. Mel is a tattoo and illustration artist based in Montréal, whose deeply queer visual universe reflects an engaged and sensitive artistic approach.
Melejuana’s work explores imagined queer realities, gender performance, and self-determined identities. Whether through painting, illustration, or tattooing, their practice is intimately connected: pictorial scenes emerge from cultural research, transform into flash designs, and eventually come to life on skin. The illustration for the 19th edition of the Festival follows this path, offering a vibrant and inclusive vision of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
“The foundations of pride celebrations today were not built with one brick, but rather by the many communities that have pushed us collectively forward. With this poster, I am attempting to make visible, at least in some part, the many communities and struggles that have allowed some of the rights and visibility enjoyed here in 2025, and the need to continue moving forward, protecting the most vulnerable amongst us.” Mel Perreault.
Originally from a small community in the Cantons-de-l’Est, Mel draws on their queer childhood memories to fill their work with characters and settings inspired by rural Québec. Within these familiar landscapes, Mel places bodies that have long been rendered invisible or imagines utopian worlds where queer identities can thrive freely.
The commemorative poster for the 2025 Fierté Montréal Festival is an ode to these too-often-erased worlds — a tribute to queer resilience, joy, and imagination.
The poster will be available at the Festival boutique, located at the Festival's Headquarters at 1306 Sainte-Catherine Street East, from July 31 to August 10.
Available now: the 2025 poster — a work of art that celebrates the diversity of our lived experiences and embodies the spirit of the festival.
Check out 2024 commemorative poster, signed Laurence Heinrich.
