FUN IN THE DARK.
Nighttime entertainment of all kinds will be on the agenda next weekend, as Huntsville hosts its second annual Nuit Blanche event. The show, which takes place on the town’s streets, has an emphasis on creative and interactive arts events.
Submitted photo
THE MUSKOKAN - Something a little different is coming to Muskoka.
A post-modern mad hatter, a living tower at Town Hall and a 25-foot sculpture of Tom Thomson are all just part of the show at Huntsville’s Nuit Blanche North. The event promises to fill downtown Huntsville with spectacular interactive art.
“It’s not like anything you’ll see. It’s not your typical arts event, and so it’s really unique and quite an experience,” said Dan Watson, festival co-ordinator for Nuit Blanche North. “There are really interactive and interesting things to check out. It’s one night only, so you can’t miss it. You’ve got one chance.”
Nuit Blanche North will start at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 14 and will run until 2.am.. The art exhibits will be split into four different zones around the downtown area and in total will have about 25 exhibits to check out.
Running the gamut from live performances at River Mill Park to art displays on the Main Street bridge, the event will bring an eclectic mix of sights and sounds.
One exhibit, titled Home Sweet Home, wants the viewer to consider their home and how they define it. The exhibit invites attendees to take a stroll through a miniature neighborhood of paper lanterns in the shape of houses. The exhibit will be located at the corner of Main and Brunel, and visitors will have the option of working with the artist to create their own paper-house lantern.
The theme for this year’s event is The Times They Are a Changing. That means artists needed to consider the concept of change for their exhibits.
“We think a lot of people can relate to the theme. We wanted to focus on the region and its history and our place of Huntsville and Muskoka. A lot of the projects happening have to do with incorporating some aspect of Huntsville’s history and how it’s changing,” Watson said.
One such exhibit is The Living Tower, which will be located at the Huntsville Town Hall. The Nuit Blanche North website describes The Living Tower as “Combining live projections, light, shadow and the hypnotic sounds of the Detroit Time Machine, the artists, will coax the building to share its visions of the past, and literally draw visitors into building’s memories.”
Nuit Blanche North is part of what organizers are calling the Nuit Blanche movement. The first Nuit Blanche was held in Paris, France in 2002, and since then the event has exploded. Now, there are more than 100 cities, including Toronto, that hold an annual Nuit Blanche.
Nuit Blanche translates to English as, sleepless night, and most Nuit Blanche festivals, including the original in Paris, run all night. This will be the second year the event is being held in Huntsville and organizers say there’s a possibility that future Nuit Blanche Norths will run from dusk until the sun rises.
“Hopefully, eventually it will run all night, but in our past experience there wasn’t too many people out after one o’clock. So we’re saying, based on our experience last year, it will last until two o’clock. Hopefully, if this picks up, we can gradually extend it until it’s all night,” said Watson.
For more information on Nuit Blanche North, visit the website at www.nuitblanchenorth.com.