White Night Melbourne 2017

Overview

The program for next year's White Night is here to make night owls of us all. The folks behind Melbourne's dusk 'til dawn cultural festival have once again put together a doozy of a lineup, packed with music performances, light art and giant inflatable rabbits.

You'll find the colossal conies bounding around Alexandra Gardens. They're among a number of major installations at this year's festival, which kicks off at 7pm on Saturday February 18 and runs until 7am the following day.

As in previous years, the city has been split into four different precincts, allowing nocturnal travellers to better plan their evening out. Punters travelling from the southside might want to start in 'Innocence Returned', which includes not just the Alexandra Gardens, but NGV International, the Arts Centre and Southbank as well. Highlights of this section include Echinodermus, an illuminated tree-like sculpture on the Southbank promenade, and Convergence, an interactive display incorporating projections, smoke jets and music in the Arts Centre forecourt.

On the other side of the Yarra, 'Dancing in the Streets' stretches from Birrarung Marr to Collins Street. The riverside park will play host to live music throughout the night, with a lineup of artists (to be announced in January) designed to celebrate Melbourne's cultural diversity. Other standouts include the pointedly titled More Than 1 Nation, which will see the Degraves Street entrance to Flinders Street Station lit up with Indigenous artwork, and a plethora of moving image works at ACMI including a big screen mashup incorporating everything from Star Wars to Saturday Night Fever.

White Night revellers who find themselves in the section of the CBD between Melbourne Town Hall and La Trobe Streets – dubbed 'Precipitation and Enlightenment' – will have their run of a pop-up cinema on Lonsdale Street, a psychedelic Seadragon's Lair in the State Library, and a 12-hour dance marathon on Collins Street.

Finally, the 'Flames and Fantasy' precinct covers the Carlton Gardens, the Royal Exhibition Building and the Melbourne Museum. The museum plaza will be temporary home to a number of enormous sculptures including a giant Sonic Light Bubble, a fire-breathing Pyrophone Juggernaut and towering Nebulus, while the exhibition building will as in previous years be illuminated by a series of breathtaking projections.

2017 will also see White Night take its first steps out of Melbourne, with a separate White Night Ballarat program set for March 4.

Image: Sonic Light Bubble, ENESS.