Dancer in gallery window. Nuit Blanche Toronto 2009
Toronto’s Nuit Blanche happened on the night of October 3-4. It was a great success. We saw some good art and left feeling happy.
Crowds
It is the density of crowds that makes Nuit Blanche a worthwhile event, almost regardless of what is exhibited in the galleries. The event attracts crowd-lovers and repels crowd-haters. The crowds are diverse in age, but the physicality of the event tends to favour the young. Black is a common colour of dress. Brightly-dressed individuals stand out from the crowd.
The density of sidewalk interactions in Toronto is usually fairly modest. Nuit Blanche ups this density considerably, for a limited time. But the scale of Nuit Blanche is so vast that this density occurs only in relatively small pockets of the city. In the rest of town it is business as usual.
Physical exertion
To attend Nuit Blanche involves strenuous, physical activity. It takes lots of energy to visit the various venues and districts. We stayed in one district only (Queen St West near Ossington), left early (2am), but even this was tiring.
At Nuit Blanche, walking is the preferred mode of transportation. Leave the bicycle or car at home this night, since these become cumbersome when the crowds become dense. The distance between districts in Nuit Blanche is so great that walking between all of them would exhaust most people. Therefore, an all-night Transit pass is a good investment.
However, even with a Transit Pass, Nuit Blanche has become an event so large that it can’t really be experienced in total by one individual. It’s just too physically exhausting to see it all.
Attending Nuit Blanche means staying up late. This is hard on some people’s bodies. I found it difficult to assemble enough energy to leave the house, at a time when my thoughts focus more on slipping into bed.
A good idea is to eat a substantial meal during the middle of Nuit Blanche so your body has more to work with. There were several attractive restaurants on our path and we ate in a good Chinese one.
Costs of success
Nuit Blanche is a large, far-flung event that is growing quickly. In Toronto, there is high demand for what it offers, within a certain segment of the population. As Nuit Blanche grows and becomes more popular, some people may become troubled by its scale. With this scale it is difficult to know what to do because there are so many options. Given a set of interests, it is difficult to know what particular events are best-suited to these interests.
Distance is also a potential weakness of Nuit Blanche. Walking is the only feasible means of transportation within each district. Yet, it can be physically exhausting to travel between districts. Therefore, a comprehensive shuttle system is needed between districts, beyond that which is offered by public transit. In this respect Nuit Blanche could become a huge, metropolitan version of what is currently offered by Hamilton’s Art Bus.
