Other cities worldwide are organising their own Nuit Blanche or White Night, and the list keeps getting longer… Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Lisbon, New York, Toronto, Naples, Montreal.
…in Europe
The concept was born in Paris in 2002, with an intention to open up the City to the world of the night, and the idea quickly spread. Today, Rome, Madrid, Riga, Paris, Bucharest and Brussels have set up a Nuit Blanche Europe network. Six capitals work together to promote the influence and development of this initiative via artistic exchanges, and they have defined a joint vision of the event by drafting…
The “Nuits Blanches Europe” Charter:
1. Nuit Blanche is a free cultural event that is open to all, held annually at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn – and which will of course go on all night.
2. Nuit Blanche gives pride of place to contemporary creativity in all its forms: visual art, projections, installations, music, stage and street performers, circus and fairground arts.
3. Nuit Blanche presents all the different aspects of public space: places that are usually closed or abandoned, outlying areas, prestigious locations or places that form part of the city’s cultural heritage, revisited in an unusual way by the artists.
4. Nuit Blanche enables cities organising the event to reflect together upon current developments for urban nights, to implement suitable services and means of organisation (city economy, signs, lighting, security, services...).
5. Nuit Blanche provides a perfect opportunity to promote “soft” forms of mobility: encouraging cycle paths, the use of trams, public transport, river shuttles.
6. Nuit Blanche fosters exchanges between city centres and peripheral areas.
7. The Nuit Blanche Europe partner cities have decided that a joint artistic project will be carried out each year, with the aim of developing exchanges between the cities and between European artists and audiences.