White Night Melbourne 2016
Join your fellow Melburnians for the city's biggest annual all-nighter
White Night Melbourne is coming back in 2016 to put on the biggest all-night art party the whole city can join in on. On February 20, the free 12-hour art-venture will pull out all the stops with visual art, projections, music, food, theatre, film, design and performances set to bring the city to life from 7pm until 7am.
For the fourth year running, main strips, laneways, and shopfronts are going to be lit up with projections and artworks, while the streets will come alive with live performances. The city's main artery – from the Royal Exhibition Building straight down Swanston Street into the Arts Precinct – will be split into five main areas and its crowning cultural jewels will open their doors all night to showcase highlight events.
The Big Top - Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens
Witness 720 minutes of pure circus with Circus Circus. If that has inspired you to get involved, learn to juggle, hula hoop and more with the pros. Take a step back when you're done to see projections by the deadly Pitcha Makin Fellaz mob on the Royal Exhibition Building façade.
Northern Lights - Melbourne City Baths, RMIT and State Library
Artist Craig Walsh transforms the Melbourne City Baths pool into a breeding ground for embryonic life forms in Incubator, while the Live on Lonsdale stage gets the party started with performances by Melbourne musos including club favourites Harvey Sutherland and Planete, and crooners Sampa the Great, The Harpoons.
Monkey Business - Flinders Lane to Lonsdale Street, Bourke Street Mall
You've see the Bourke Street Mall buskers, now see Grooves on Bourke turn the shopping strip into a jazz club. Meanwhile, the Melbourne Town Hall façade will be transformed by the Golden Monkey, a mystery art piece by Losa Roet. The Grooves on Bourke music stage will feature soul vocalist Kylie Auldist, Cookin' on 3 Burners, and blues outfit Checkerboard.
Wonderland - Birrarung Marr, Federation Square, ACMI, Flinders Street
Indigenous artist Reko Rennie is set to light up Fed Square with as his work is blown up into kaleidoscope-like large-scale projections. You'll need your dancing shoes at Trip the Light Fantastic, where 12-hours of choreographed dancing will guide the crowds through the biggest dance party of the summer. In charge of the tunes at the Light Fantastic stage will be a multicultural line-up including Hasta La Cumbia, Melbourne Djembe, Funk Buddies and Sol Nation.
Southern Lights - Arts Precinct, Alexandra and Queen Victoria Gardens
Stroll down to the Arts Precinct, where the NGV International's façade will be illuminated by Still Here – the work of Ballarat-based artist Josh Muir, whose contemporary street art background plays with his Indigenous heritage. Look up the Arts Centre spire afterwards to experience CMD, CTRl, Decipher, an interactive light installation that requires you to team up with fellow night crawlers to operate. The Blues Speakeasy stage at Alexandra Gardens will be putting the sweet grooves on with bands including The Screamin' Honkies, The New Savages, Miss Whiskey, Tom Dockray and more.
