To the State of Victoria, the City of Melbourne and the hundred thousand people or more who attended Melbourne’s first annual White Night Festival – thank you! It was very heartening to see the Central Business District come alive up and down Swanston Street Walk – from the State Library to the National Gallery of Victoria. Spilling out down Flinders Street and onto the banks of the Yarra and on bridges over the Yarra – and on one pontoon on the Yarra. A hundred thousand people plus – more than attend the AFL Grand Final at the MCG in any given year. A hundred thousand people out to experience a city open all night – to see music performed in libraries on the steps of Flinders Street train station; to be given dance lessons at Federation Square; to see buildings transformed with intricate light displays; to see inside buildings that are rarely open to the public – and never all night. Until last night. I began the night (after a delicious meal at Seamstress) by visiting
Playwright, Critic, Screenwriter.