THE man who brought us the Sydney Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies is in charge of Ballarat’s transformation for White Night next month – an all-night event that turns early-to-bedders into night-owls.
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On March 4 the central Victorian city – the smallest city in the world to host White Night – will go big beyond its wildest dreams, joining the ranks of 23 mostly capital cities around the world to be re-imagined from sunset to sunrise.
Celebrated producer David Atkins is the artistic director of the 7pm-7am event, which will see lights and laser beam images projected onto the former gold-mining city’s striking historic facades. There will also be exhibitions, street performances, film, music, dance and interactive events covering four blocks of the city centre.
“I first performed in Ballarat as an eager young nine-year-old tap dancer as part of the South Street Eisteddfod and now I am back again, as nervous and excited as I was then,” Atkins said.
Not surprisingly, Ballarat’s White Night will celebrate the city’s rich gold-rush history. Program highlights include Nights of Gold, which explores the heady nightlife during its “roaring days”.
Wadawurrung Walking with Waa will take visitors on a walk through time from the Aboriginal creation story to the present.
The paintings of Aunty Marlene and her daughter Deanne Gilson will be projected onto walls, providing an Indigenous perspective of the goldmining era, while aunty’s son, Barry Gilson, will sing Wadawurrung songs in the language of his ancestors.
The Art Gallery of Ballarat, the oldest regional art gallery in Australia and regarded by many to be its finest, will feature Big Walk to Golden Mountain paying tribute to the long trek undertaken by thousands of Chinese gold-seekers from Robe to the central Victorian goldfields.
Then there is Crate Expectations, a playful robotic sculpture made from vintage packing crates, moving furniture and disembodied limbs, which will roll through the streets performing a choreography of warped sound and sequenced lighting.
An equally “out-there” exhibit will be Fibre Lane, a lighting installation using side-glow optical fibre which you can walk or dance through, hold or play with.
More Than 1 Nation is a collaboration that will see the stunning patterns and colours of the Pitcha Makin Fellas’ paintings, cut-outs and stamps transposed by The Electric Canvas onto the former Bank of NSW building.
Another popular exhibit will be Do Not Go Gentle, a moving audio-visual projection based on the famous Dylan Thomas poem.
The program has been skilfully designed to offer something for everyone, making it ideal for families and those who want to escape the crush of the annual Melbourne White Night event.
IF YOU GO
Ballarat is 110km, about an hour and a half west of Melbourne, by car. The centre of the city will be closed to traffic so there will be Park and Ride services. Ballarat can also be reached by V/Line trains from Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station. The area designated for White Night has wide flat streets for easy walking, and cafes will open to keep visitors sustained throughout the night.
Stay: There are 5000 beds within 30km of Ballarat. A range of accommodation is available in the city itself including Craig’s Royal Hotel, built in 1853, one of Australia’s grand Victorian hotels. High tea, a Craig’s tradition for more than 100 years, is held on Sundays.
See: Make a weekend of it. Ballarat Lyric Theatre’s production of Cats will run from March 2-12 in the historic Her Majesty’s Theatre. Sovereign Hill, the Museum of Australian Democracy Eureka, and Ballarat Tramway Museum are also well worth visiting.
Footnote: White Night Melbourne will take place on February 18.
This article first appeared in The Senior.
