Nuit Blanche

Happy Sunday! Are you a night owl who likes contemporary art? If you are, plan to attend Nuit Blanche. If you are not, how about simply going out on a beautiful autumn evening and connect with the pulse of the city?

Nuit Blanche Toronto is a free, annual, city-wide, all-night celebration of contemporary art, usually scheduled at the beginning of October. This year it was on from sunset on Saturday September 30 to sunrise on Sunday October 1. The theme for Nuit Blanche 2017 is “Many Possible Futures”, with art projects displayed at various locations, most of them are in downtown Toronto.

We had a perfect, sunny and cool Saturday which encouraged people to be out and about. I was eager to visit the art displays and concert at Nathan Phillips Square. There were some road closures to accommodate a variety of art installations and to make the experience more pedestrian-friendly. I saw many attendees, volunteers, security personnel and police directing traffic. The volunteers handed out brochures and fielded questions from attendees. Lots of people used their mobile devices to navigate to the art projects. There is also an Information booth on site for new visitors.

Some interesting numbers about Nuit Blanche 2017 and 2016:

• 2017 is the 12th edition
• This year includes 90 art projects created by 350 local, national, and international artists
• Over one million people attended last year’s Nuit Blanche
• About 200,000 attendees were out-of-town visitors
• The event generated about $41 million for Toronto

People started lining up in Nathan Phillips Square before 7 p.m. when Nuit Blanche began:

Old City Hall looked good with the golden glow before sunset:

Twenty contemporary art displays in large containers under the Monument to the Century of Revolutions category:

Red Slam concert was one of the highlights:

A hot air balloon event was on on the west side of Nathan Phillips Square:

I visited a few indoor art projects as well. It was a beautiful autumn evening, made even more special with Nuit Blanche Toronto!

What fun activities did you enjoy this week? Please share below.