I think it was a festival. I know it was called White Night. I know there were thousands of people on the streets. And I know it was in Melbourne. Other than that, I had no idea what the hell was going on. You could say the marketing people got it right for once - 'a night like no other' - but maybe not the way they intended it too.
We only heard about it at breakfast that morning with our friends Glenn and Jess, who invited us along. When I heard it was running from 7pm to 7am my initial reaction was thanks but no thanks; the only all nighter we indulge in at our age is one that involves a full night's sleep. But we were intrigued when we were told 'it was a vision of how Melbourne would look as a 24/7 city and it's an Arts event.' Ok, keep talking. 'It's not about the booze.'
That was probably the only clear advice we got on the festival. The website didn't really work. I could figure out there were several locations through the city, but the website assumed I knew what the hell would be showcased at those sites. Several clicks later and I was no clearer. When we arrived in the city, Alison asked me where we should go. 'Not sure,' I said. 'But you read the website?' She suggested. 'Yep I did, next question.'
When in doubt follow the crowds. They took us down Bourke Street where a pretty good rockabilly band were rocking out on a temporary stage. The problem was you couldn't really watch them without getting pushed around by people trying to get down Bourke Street. Alison was meanwhile trying to find out more info on the website. Ten minutes later and the only thing she had figured out was that the website was indeed crap.
We headed up Swanston Street towards 'the Northern Lights' events area. Thousands of people had the same idea. Those thousands like us, seemed to have no idea what was happening and where. There were no signs anywhere. Everybody was looking for some excitement, or a show. A crowd rushed over to the entrance to David Jones. I followed them, intrigued as to what was going on. I peeked over the top to see an old drunk falling over. Surely he wasn't on the bill?
That kind of anticipation carried on as we fought our way up Swanston Street. We reached the State Library, which had multicoloured lights projected onto its facade and did look great. There was something going on inside the library, but no one knew exactly what. The only thing we did find out from the over stressed volunteer on the door was that the queue was over two hours long. Next, please.
Next was in fact another temporary stage near the RMIT city campus. A fantastic 8 piece instrumental band were in full flow and we caught the last twenty minutes. We were then swept with the masses towards the old Melbourne Gaol. The very, very stressed volunteer here managed to tell us (in between shouting at people) that the Purple Rain event queue started round the other side of the building. In fact it was round three other sides of the building. Another two hour wait. Nothing to see here.
Thankfully, they had opened the Gaol up so you could visit for free, so that kept us amused for an hour, but we hadn't really come into the city to visit the old Victorian jail cells. We decided we would try one last time to get into an event. Glenn and Jess hadn't even arrived yet and it was 11.30pm; apparently the train network was at a standstill too because of the chaos of blocking off most of the city. So we headed to Melbourne Baths to see what was going on. We arrived to be told by an even-more-stressed-than-the-one-before volunteer that there was a Synchronised Swimming event on in eight minutes. Seriously? Is that Melbourne's vision of a 24 hour city? Oh my. We may possibly have gone in out of morbid curiosity but for another two hour queue around the side of the building.
Ok, take me home now. There may have been better events at other sites, and I'm sure people had a good time. And the music was good and free. But we were happy to get back to our own version of an all nighter. Like I said, a night like no other.
#whitenight, #melbournefestivals, #visitvic, #melbourne
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