There’s a lot happening in and around Montreal during the Canadian Grand Prix. While the race itself is the main attraction, Formula 1 week has become one of the busiest periods on the city’s event calendar, with private parties, corporate gatherings, hospitality events, sponsor activations, and experiential marketing campaigns taking place across Montreal and the surrounding area.

For brands, the Grand Prix represents a unique opportunity to connect with fans in a more personal way. Rather than simply advertising around the event, companies create interactive experiences that allow people to engage directly with their products and values. These brand activations are designed to create memorable moments—experiences that people want to photograph, share, and remember long after the chequered flag has been waved.

The activation featured a life-size LEGO Aston Martin Formula One car, previously seen during the LEGO F1 race at the Miami Grand Prix, giving visitors the chance to experience an impressive scale model of one of motorsport’s most recognisable cars.

Alongside the display was a hands-on build-station where visitors could create their own miniature F1 steering wheel, allowing children, families, and racing fans to become part of the experience.

My brief was to focus on engagement at the activation—capturing the interaction between visitors and the installation rather than simply documenting the setup itself (although I did that too). The goal was to show the energy of the event: children discovering the LEGO F1 car for the first time, families building together, fans getting involved, and the sense of excitement created by bringing a piece of Formula 1 into a public space.

This is one of the things I enjoy most about photographing brand activations. The strongest images are rarely just of the product or the installation; they are about the people experiencing it.

A successful activation creates moments of curiosity, connection, and excitement, and photography plays an important role in preserving those moments for brands to use across social media, marketing campaigns, internal communications, and future event promotion.

As a Montreal event photographer, I regularly work with brands, agencies, and production teams to document corporate events, experiential campaigns, and live experiences. Photographing events during Grand Prix week requires an ability to work quickly and unobtrusively while capturing the atmosphere, branding, and genuine interactions that make these events successful.

The Canadian Grand Prix has become much more than a race weekend—it is a city-wide celebration that brings together motorsport, entertainment, luxury brands, and creative experiences. For companies looking to activate around Formula 1 in Montreal, professional event photography helps tell the story of those experiences and demonstrates the impact of their investment.

View more Montreal event photography.