White Night 2015: Magical Melbourne lights up for the all-night festival

LATEST: PREMIER Daniel Andrews says White Night has a “big future” in Melbourne, but has stopped short of guaranteeing funding for the event for a fourth year. SEE THE PICTURES, VIDEO | SOCIAL MEDIA WALL

PREMIER Daniel Andrews says White Night has a “big future” in Melbourne, but has stopped short of guaranteeing funding for the event for a fourth year.

Almost half a million people took a shine to the event in its third kaleidoscopic year, with organisers dubbing the dusk-to-dawn spectacular a success.

Crowds were treated to 80 free eye-popping events which illuminated nine precincts last night and this morning.

WHITE NIGHT MELBOURNE 2015

MEDIA WALL: HOW MELBOURNE SAW WHITE NIGHT

People jammed every vantage point between the Royal Exhibition Building and the National Gallery of Victoria, but congestion was eased this year by a bigger White Night “footprint’ that sprawled out of the CBD into Birrarung Marr, the Alexandra Gardens and Carlton Gardens.

Twenty people were arrested during the 7pm to 7am festival, but police spokesman Sen-Constable Adam West said police were pleased with the crowd’s overall behaviour.

A 15-year-old girl was arrested for assault outside St Paul’s Cathedral about 2.25am, and 12 people were nabbed for drunkenness, three for theft, one for possession of a weapon and one for an unspecified “public order offence”.

This year’s event was the final White Night Melbourne to have been guaranteed government funding.

But while the Andrews Government would not commit to backing the event in 2016, the Premier ensured Victorians he was looking at future funding “very closely”.

“This is exactly what Melbourne is all about — the best of major events,” Mr Andrews said.

“I think this event’s got a big future, and we’ll have more to say about that soon.”

Mr Andrews didn’t rule out supporting White Night events in regional cities including Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.

“I very much understand that we need to share much more of the major events calendar with ... other cities,” he said.

Victorian Major Events Company chief executive Brendan McClements said expanding White Night to regional Victoria was “one thing we’ll look at” for future events.

Mr McClements dubbed this year’s spectacular “a terrific endorsement of the place Melbourne and Victoria is”.

He singled out mesmerising sculpture The Crucible — a giant fire-breathing dragon devised by Melbourne designers Stephanie Selig and Sean Diamond — as a highlight of the extravaganza.

The event’s artistic director, Andrew Walsh, labelled the night a success. He said the new precinct design had “comfortably” accommodated 450,000 to 500,000 people and evened out crowd numbers across the entire twelve hours.

Big crowds surged around Indian-themed Sita’s Garden by the Yarra, the 4 Elements light show opposite Melbourne Museum and the NGV’s luminous installation in its moat.

Numbers also swelled for White Night’s signature building projections along Flinders St — this year with an Alice in Wonderland theme.

Other crowd-pleasers included Rabbit Hole at the State Library of Victoria, Ghostly Machines’ at Hamer Hall and the live music stages.

SIMON PLANT’S TOP TEN

It’s always a feast for the senses, a cavalcade of colours, sounds and captivating ideas. But 10 very special events made this years’ White Night Melbourne memorable. Walk this way ...

News_Image_File: The light show at the Royal Exhibition Buildings. Picture: Mark Dadswell1. 4 ELEMENTS

Royal Exhibition Buildings

Europe’s Ocubo company used “video mapping projections” to convert the facade of Melbourne’s grandest High Victorian building into a dazzling 21st-Century screen. Virtual dancers then brought the four elements (earth, water, fire, air) vividly to life. Quite a show.

News_Image_File: Sofles’ Graffiti Mapped at the McKenzie Street car park. Picture: Mark Dadswell2. SOFLES — GRAFFITI MAPPED

Mackenzie Car Park, city

The side of a five-storey car park near the Old Melbourne Gaol supplied a unique canvas for a renowned graffiti artist named Sofles. But his “big girl’’ character, delineated in black and white, really came alive with the addition of Juddy Roller’s eye-catching digital projections.

“Should look cool,” Sofles told me. It was.

News_Image_File: Rabbit Hole at the State Library, Picture Yuri Kouzmin3. RABBIT HOLE

State Library of Victoria

Taking their cues from Alice in Wonderland, celebrating its 150th year in 2015, digital artists went to town at the State Library. Rabbit Hole saw Nick Azidis strafing the library’s facade with whimsical projections while two French artists presented Eat Me under the Dome — an electro-pop dreamscape that would have left Lewis Carroll reeling.

4. SOME STILL CRY WHEN IT RAINS

City Square

Bells, birds and drone noises underpinned Robbie Rowlands’ haunting montage of spot-lit silos and fences. Avoca’s struggles with flood and drought inspired this presentation but ‘Some Still Cry When It Rains’ opened the door to a bigger conversation about Australian rural life.

5. COLONISE

Scots’ Church, Collins St

White Night challenges houses of worship to reveal their brighter side but Alinta Krauth’s “light painting’’ and pendulous sculpture at Scots’ Church was a mesmerising mix of bright and dark. The artist illuminated sections of the building from the inside out, looking to shine a light on native nocturnal animals.

6. JAZZ@THE FORUM

Flinders St

Outside, The Forum was a wonderland of candy-coloured light. Inside, Melbourne’s gaudiest theatre was a hub for non-stop jazz: the Cairo Club Orchestra paving the way for safari-suited Tijuana Peanuts, The Band Who Knew Too Much and so many more. The night’s biggest ovation was surely reserved for acclaimed Afro-Cuban outfit Los Cabrones — together again for this special show.

News_Image_File: The Crucible as part of Sita's Garden in Birrarung Marr.7. THE CRUCIBLE

Birrarung Marr

A giant scrap metal dragon breathing fire above the Yarra was always going to be a big drawcard. But ‘The Crucible’, devised by Melbourne-based designers Stephanie Selig and Sean Diamond and built by volunteers, upped the ante with lantern-festooned “fire trees”.

An oxy-welded wonder.

8. CIRCLES OF LIGHT

Queen Victoria Gardens

Twelve hours, twelve acts. This precinct was really jumping last night. Which made Circles Of Light all the more beguiling. Visitors to a rotunda in the Queen Vic Gardens were encouraged to touch a plant and light up a room, hold a leaf and create an original musical composition. An ingenious White Night commission.

News_Image_File: Ghostly Machines at Hamer Hall.9. GHOSTLY MACHINES

Arts Centre Melbourne

Hamer Hall has never seen anything like it: a performance starring machines.

Inspired by mechanical ballet and kinetic art, Ghostly Machines conjured up a strange, sometimes menacing atmosphere, and had us re-imagining a familiar space.

News_Image_File: Keyframes at NGV International.10. KEYFRAMES

NGV International, St Kilda Rd

It was hard to know where to look, what with deformed laser shapes in the sculpture garden and chemical reactions” in the Great Hall. But Keyframes stole the show at the NGV. How could it not, with luminous plastic bodies glowing in the moat and along the gallery’s bluestone facade?

 

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Twitter: @SamLandy