Melbourne Patron

Some might call it inner-city wank, but to me, the Gertrude Street Projection Festival , held annually for a week or two in winter, is what Melbourne is all about. Now in its seventh year, I have been to the Festival almost every year since landing in "Melbs" 5.534 years ago (yes, I actually just figured out that amount of time to three decimal points), and although it is often a bloody freezing foray down Gertrude Street, it is always enjoyable. Fitzroy and Collingwood are about as cool as you can get in Melbourne, suburb-wise (and yes, I'm biased): homes to hipsters-y students, young professionals, and alternative families (massive generalisations of course, but then, I am actually generalising here), 'typical' Melbourne fashions plus up-and-coming designers, food trends, bicycles, music venues, pubs, restaurants, cafes and bars galore, galleries and loads of street art, iconic tram lines, and some of the oldest (and therefore, grungiest) buildings to ...

White Night , according to its website, was conceived in Paris in 2002 as Nuit Blanche , and has since expanded its program to over 20 other cities worldwide. Melbourne was the first Australian city to hold a White Night in 2013, and the inaugural event attracted over a quarter of a million attendees. City of Melbourne's White Night 2014 flags I first heard of White Night just before its Melburnian debut last year, but was sadly unable to go. I was entranced by my friends' pictures, posted on social media, of well-known public spaces transformed by light and colour - much like scenes you'd find at one of my favourite Melbourne events: the annual Gertrude Street Projection Festival . But White Night, as I understood, was bigger (being held across a number of public spaces), longer (running for 12 hours, from 7pm to 7am), more central (being in the CBD), and offered an array of further attractions. Despite not understanding the name at all (white? but it's so colo...