Thousands are expected to bask in the glow of art installations, exhibitions, projection, music, performance and more when the all-night creative celebration White Night returns to Melbourne and Ballarat in 2018.
Six years since its inception, White Night Melbourne, a synonymous fixture on Melbourne’s cultural calendar, will take place from 7pm on Saturday 17 February 2018 and White Night Ballarat, in its second year, will follow on Saturday 17 March 2018.
“We’re turning up the notch for White Night 2018 with an incredible array of the weird and wonderful to delight and amaze locals and visitors alike,” Visit Victoria chief executive officer Peter Bingeman says.
“We want to show the world the best of everything we have to offer in Australia’s city that doesn’t sleep, and White Night is a fantastic opportunity to do just that.
“Our regional White Night offerings, including Ballarat, are the perfect opportunity for Melbournians and surrounds to get out of town and into the region for a truly unique and wonderful experience.”
Capturing the imagination of 600,000 people across 12 continuous hours, White Night Melbourne’s theme is designed to make you question, dream and ask What If?
“The proposition of ‘What If?’, together with the works and installations, is designed to engage the audience emotionally and experientially, to challenge perceptions and conventions, it should captivate and motivate, incite and inspire, be uplifting and exhausting, and it should shock the senses and lift the spirit,” White Night artistic director David Atkins says.
This proposition will inform and be reflected in much of White Night’s program content, with the hope that people will take away more than just a great night out.
“White Night will connect people to each other and to a proposition that will inspire them to embrace their differences and be gentler, kinder and more sympathetic to everyone.”
The inaugural White Night Ballarat in March drew crowds of 40,000 who filled the streets and adjoining laneways of Sturt and Lydiard.
“The 2018 program of reimagined installations and performances looks set to once again reveal the city’s creative industries, which are fast-becoming the pillar of Ballarat’s arts culture, and this is also a great opportunity for the number of local artists who are contributing to our reputation as a City of the Arts and growing local arts ecology,” City of Ballarat Mayor, Samantha McIntosh says.
