Toronto’s Nuit Blanche with Baby

1385796_676639816367_441134675_nNuit Blanche is a unique concept that was born in Paris back in 2002 and today spans over 120 cities, including Toronto who celebrated its 8 annual all night art festival. Apparently Toronto was the first North American city to fully replicate the Paris model and I’ve had the chance to participate in the 12 hour event every year since I moved to Toronto. The goal of making contemporary art accessible to large audiences, while inspiring dialogue and engaging the public to examine its significance and impact on public space is a noble one and one that speaks to me. I will be the first to admit that 80% of the installations and performances have me puzzled and going “anyone can be an artist” but it’s still a fun night out no matter what. With over 20 million people attending Nuit Blanche and over 20% being tourists, it has become a tourist attraction for not only local suburbanites but also those from nearby cities.

From sunset to sunrise city spaces and neighbourhoods are transformed into temporary exhibitions and usually forbidden spaces are open for exploration. To an extent there are no rules, streets become pedestrian only, there’s food trucks at every corner and a mix of cultures come out to play and explore. The city is even more alive that usual. Quite a few installations are right by our house so it makes it easy for us to participate. Infact last year we roamed around with the little one in our baby carrier and found it to be a pleasant experience.

This year was a bit different. Given that I’m three weeks from delivering version 2.0 it was a bit difficult to roam too far from home and spent three hours walking a 6 km block. We also had the Little Monkey in her stroller which meant battling through crowds at certain stages. For the most part the city is very family friendly and you see many kids out well past their bedtime during Nuit Blanche. The hardest part is not knowing where gridlocks will happen and that’s where social media comes to play. We got stuck next to one display with people shoving, getting angry and pretty much at a standstill, I did my best to hop on Instagram and Twitter and warn people to stay away from the area. Infact I saw quite a few people do this, especially when fights (inevitably happens, especially when folks are out drinking during such events) broke out at major intersections.

My advice to anyone tackling a large festival of this size is to be prepared (Once a girl guide.. always a girl guide)! I watched my social media feeds and tried to avoid certain areas where a stroller would have been an issue or where there were too many belligerent folks. If your kid can walk long distances or your baby is small enough for a baby carrier that would be ideal. After getting in that gridlock I kept an constant eye for easy exit routes and tried my best to avoid the busy displays. And despite what a young lady on the street yelled at us, Nuit Blanche is kid friendly and you’re not a bad parent for having your kid out late at night to enjoy, explore and learn about art.

As I mentioned the city came alive in person and on Twitter and Instagram, below are some Instagram pictures I shared and some I’ve since reposted (thanks @goatroti and @Loraxgirl) as part of #IGTravelThursday! Nuit Blanche even had screens set up that showcased live feeds that used the #snbTO hashtag and a couple of mine were retweeted by them surprisingly. Did you attend? What did you think? Will you join us next year?

 

 

Forever Bicycles 

This was the most popular display and most instagrammed as well. Curated by the infamous Ai Weiwei, 3,144 interconnected bicycles was built over the course of FIFTEEN days and resulted in a three-dimensional structure creating an incredible visual effect.

Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto forever bicycles Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto IMG_20131005_210137

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Got me thinking

Two installations really stood out for me. The Clothesline Canopy with a display of 5,000 pairs of socks to represent the number of people without adequate housing in Toronto. I thought that number was a bit low but I liked the concept of drawing attention to the need for more shelters and housing for the homeless. In addition socks were going to be donated at the end to local shelters and homes.  The second one, which was the Little Monkey’s favourite, was the there’s an elephant in a truck display. The work used animal imagery to symbolize and represent political issues and social behaviour, especially how we often avoid facing even the most obvious issues around us.

Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto
Clothesline Canopy
Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto
There is an Elephant in the Truck

 

 

 

 

Random Sightings

We saw a lot of things that puzzled us, got us thinking and that just looked cool. Below are some images of the displays that were interactive and perked my curiosity enough to get a close up. Sadly the last two images are from the area that had the worst bottleneck situation of the mass of people pretty much stampeding through. Was not fun at all!

Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto
Hybrid Globe
Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto
A Quack Cure
Monster Child
Monster Child
Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto
Crash Cars

IMG_20131005_211414 Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eats

The addition of Food Trucks was a great touch as you get hungry walking around the city!

Churros from Pancho's Bakery
Churros from Pancho’s Bakery
Nuit Blanche, Nuit blanche toronto
Sausage Sandwich from Per Se Mobile

 

 

 

  • Elena
    October 10, 2013 at 11:21 am

    What a fabulous way to see the city from a different perspective. Love the clotheslines and bicycle pictures especially.

  • Davindra
    October 10, 2013 at 12:18 pm

    Thanks for letting me know about the history behind Nuit Blanche. My kids really enjoyed it, partly due to the fact that they were downtown in the middle of the night. The organizers really need to address the placing of the more interactive pieces somewhere where crowds can move easier. I was also stuck in that human traffic jam in front of the balloon piece and all it would have taken was one idiot causing some trouble to cause people to get hurt.

    Thank you for using my pic in your article, I’m glad you like it.

    • Yashy
      October 10, 2013 at 12:20 pm

      Thanks for sharing the #snbto picture!

  • Satu VW / Destination Unknown
    October 11, 2013 at 8:51 am

    That looks likes an amazing event! And I agree, it is OK to take kids along to late night events every once and a while, we have done it and will keep on doing it… 🙂 Good luck with the 2.0, only 3 weeks to go, exciting!

  • MLV
    October 14, 2013 at 10:55 pm

    It was fun but I saw way too many fights that made me think that I need to go earlier. There was alot of really cool exhibits this year.

    • Yashy
      October 20, 2013 at 8:36 pm

      I think a lot of us were in the same boat… it’s getting a bit too messy

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