Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche, or White Night, for those of you who don't speak French, is an all night art event that started in Paris and has spread to many other world class cities. Torontonians seem to love Nuit Blanche and have doubled their attendance rates from the 2006 inaugural year to last year's recorded number of 800,000! With some major sponsorship money coming in from Scotiabank and a general positive vibe from locals and media outlets, it looks like this year will be bigger & brighter, filled with more exciting nighttime treats.

Last year I ended up at an adhoc car wash party on Queen West near Gladstone Avenue where I danced till the sun came up to the awesome electronic/house beats of OPOPO & Operon. This special event was not part of Nuit Blanche but anything goes on a night where art is in charge! The boys who DJ'ed knew that no one would care if they were taking over private property to play really loud music when people down the street were watching random objects being thrown from the roof of a building, all in the name of art! If this type of stunt is of interest to you, be sure to check out SMASH! Droppin' Stuff! in Liberty Village.





Unfortunately the car wash has ceased to exist in order to make room for more condo's (surprise) Fortunately, rumour has it there could very well be another sporadic dance party taking place nearby, but the location for now remains a secret. My recommendation is to hang out in the Queen West area and you'll be sure to stumble upon some kick-ass beats at 4am, not to mention tons of cool art installations along the way.


I"m going to try and check out Mike Relm who will be performing at The Drake earlier on in the night. Mike Relm is one of the coolest and most original DJ's I"ve ever seen as he incorporates videos (often controversial) into his music in order to keep the listener thinking while dancing.



After his performance I'm going to head over to an abandoned garage on Ossington to catch The 84.85 in action with Syntonics. It's not every night you get to party in an abandoned garage and Nuit Blanche helps local residents remember that art can be found anywhere at any time of day, in numerous forms.


So next time you see that random looking object on a sidewalk corner, you might want to have another look. Maybe it has a deeper, hidden meaning that only a young child can understand, or 1 million Torontonians on a magical night.


Nuit Blanche runs from 6:52pm to 6:52am on Saturday, October 4th - 5th.