After 5 long nights of packed venues, church basements and plenty of beer, we can put the 2012 edition of POP Montreal to bed. Yes, it was a great time, from day parties to BBQs to basketball games, and even shows in clothing stores. Here are some photo highlights.

The best thing about POP is that one night of shows can take you all over Montreal. I had myself hopping from the Peaches Christ Superstar surprise show at Ukrainian Federation to Yamantaka//Sonic Titan's opera at the Rialto to Lil B rapping to his followers at Club Soda to catching 4 songs of METZ at Il Motore to partying at 2am with A Tribe Called Red at Eglise POP. And that was just Friday.

The weekend started with POP VS JOCK in a very close basketball game between musicians and university basketball players. It had its fun with Kid Koala and Regine Chassagne from Arcade Fire playing sports anthems (in costumes), David Byrne singing disco at the halftime show and kids in costumes running around in circles. We all saw that Win Butler can be very passionate on the basketball court.

Saturday night at Divan Orange was my highlight. Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt got things started with a purple parachute, a dancing hot dog and group hugs. Montreal trio Goose Hut played an energetic set while Stepdad got the crowd's momentum going at full speed. Rich Aucoin gave an explosive set featuring confetti, crowd surfing and 2 (yes, 2) parachutes into the crowd. It was a sweaty time at Divan Orange.

I tried taking it easy on the last day of POP, checking out The Art of "The Suburbs", the collection of design art featuring the car used for Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" album cover. I also went to one more day party with Honheehonhee, and took one more trip to Eglise POP for Fashion POP. I ended POP where I started, at La Tulipe. An amazing set by Evian Christ and Purity Ring, with its light show, capped off my POP experience.

Here are the highlights from 5 days of POP Montreal:

Watch the slideshow below for more of my POP photos: