What a night...

White Night - 

ooh what a night it was 

It really was such a night....

White Night and crowds everywhere

I was just one of an estimated 300,000 who visited the city of Melbourne last Saturday for the wondrous White Night. Nuit Blanche first began in Paris in 2002 and I am thrilled that Melbourne has 'obtained the rights' to stage the only Australian event for the next 2 years - and hopefully for many more years to come particularly after this extraordinary initial success. Now running in 23 cities worldwide it thrilled and entranced those who braved the crowds to see our buildings lit up so beautifully. In an earlier post I talked about the Christmas projections on the Melbourne Town Hall and also our own Richmond Town Hall. Well this was just a taste of what was produced for White Night. 

'Live' painting

It was an all night event for those with the stamina to celebrate our city from dusk till dawn. For me a stroll around the sites for a couple of hours was enough! There is something magical about seeing people smiling, laughing and entranced by the fairyland of it. 

Flinders Street - a wall of lights and people!

Stretching along Flinders Street and Flinders Lane between Russell and Elizabeth Streets and along St Kilda Road it encompassed both National Galleries of Victoria (NGV International and Australia) both of which stayed open all night. Singing, dancing (a 12 hour dance-a-thon entitled 'I could have danced all night') and music events took place throughout the area and in particular Federation Square, the steps of Flinders Street Station and Degraves Street.

The Forum Theatre

As luck would have it Melbourne gave us perfect balmy weather for an outdoor event. No rain, no wind and not too cold. A miracle! Sadly some of the events did not seem to be well advertised and we missed 2 of the highlights - Michel Blazy's foam sculpture at the NGV International and the ice sculptures at the State Library of Victoria. Extraordinarily bizarre was the fact that there were no projections on the Town Hall.

Always a head in the way - Flinders Street Station

What a celebration. What fun. If you didn't go then don't miss it next year. It's worth a visit to this city (and a stay at the cottage!) to experience the joy of White Night fun and light. Let's hope next year will be better advertised!  

Projection equipment - with the beautiful Chapter House in the background

And finally I loved this Golding cartoon in The Sunday Age. Yes - one night we turn off the lights to save energy and another we turn them on!