On a balmy February night Melbourne opened its arms and mind to a cultural event the likes of which hadn’t been seen in Australia. It wasn’t a flashy affair designed for television cameras or a sales pitch to sell the city to tourists. It was White Night – a conceptual arts event that has been surfacing in cultural capitals across the globe since its inception in Paris in 1984.
An estimated 300,000 punters turned out over the course of the night to sample music, food, film, art and light showcased over 80 free events in the CBD and surrounding areas. Forty outdoor areas were converted into performance or installation spaces with more than 50 projectors, 150 moving lights, kilometres of truss and scaffolding, and countless hours of pre-production, show and post production by local designers, producers, manager and technicians.