Melbourne – White Night 5 – 2017

This was Melbourne’s fifth White Night but it was our third time. While White Night technically starts at 7pm from past experience we knew it was pretty pointless looking around until after it was actually dark which in summer is nearly 9pm. So we joined a few friends in eating dinner at the Shark Fin Inn, a Chinese restaurant at the top end of Chinatown. The food was good, the company was good but as it was very busy we felt the service wasn’t that attentive. Anyhow once we had paid our bill we headed out and down through Chinatown.

As we walked down Little Bourke Street we noticed the entry to the Chinese Museum was well lit.

At Swanston Street we headed for the State Library. It was certainly a popular spot. Apparently there was an internal display as well as the projection on the actual library building but due to the crowd we didn’t even entertain queueing up to go in.

After a while there we started to make our way south along Swanston Street. Big mistake! Along the edge of the street every fifty metres or so was a busker with the inevitable crowd gathered around . This made it quite hard to pass by. At the corner of the Bourke Street Mall we came upon a living silver statue with a smaller crowd.

From there we joined the swarming mass to continue. Very quickly we became separated from our friends. This photo gives you a bit of an idea how squishy it was. I know it’s not in focus but that’s because I was jostled by others passing me by as I dared to stop and take a photo.

A few minutes after we rejoined our friends but we discussed that if we became separated again we would just continue with our partners. True to form in no time we had lost our friends. We made our way slowly along until we came to Flinders street Station. Sadly no projection on the front of the building but down Flinders Street we could see the side entrance was being used to project a film on. We headed down that way along the tram tracks which were free of trams for the night.

We spent some time looking at the film which a group of indigenous artists had created.

From there we made our way back along Flinders Street past the station. A slideshow was being projected on the beautiful old Forum Theatre and the adjoining buildings.

After looking at this for five minutes or so we decided to leave and make our way home. It was nearly 1am and with just over an hour’s drive to return home it was time to make a move. Needless to say we didn’t use Swanston Street to return to the carpark. Russell Street was virtually crowd free.

White Night has a lot going for it but we have found that its overwhelming popularity has made it harder to move around the city between installations. Probably three times is enough. If you haven’t been it’s worth going but plan your way between installations to avoid the crush down Swanston Street.

Have you been to White Night Melbourne? Or if you live elsewhere have you attended a White Night in Paris or anywhere else?