do you ever play tourist in your own town?
tonight we did just that.
we rarely venture into the city on a saturday night. but tonight we made an exception and decided to see what the white night festival had to offer.
it is a twelve hour dance marathon, stating at 7pm on Saturday evening and running though the night until 7am sunday morning.
the open space of federation square was glistening under hundreds of disco balls.
to the strains of abba's dancing queen the event began. first up there was an hour of zumba.
it was a hot and humid melbourne night and the crowd was as big as any i have ever seen in the city.
when i was young no one went into the cbd on saturday night, it was almost deserted with everything closed up for the night. but, i am really quite old and things have changed quite a lot it seems.
tonight there was entertainment around every corner with pop up stages in lanes showcasing various jazz bands and entertainers.
the streets around fed square were closed to traffic allowing pedestrians to wander freely from stage to stage.
the famous steps of flinders st station were transformed into a stage and ross wilson strutted and belted out the songs of my youth ( i did say that i am really quite old)
the building facades in the area were temporarily transformed with an amazing light show. colours and images were projected onto the buildings giving them an exotic facelift for the night.
as beautiful as these buildings are i think the colorful transformations would do well as permanent changes.
we felt like we could be anywhere, in any of the worlds busiest cities.
it was brilliant.
we travelled by tram, grabbed a malaysian feast and visited the house of sticks,
we caught the zumba, the bootscooting and the swing genres. we hoped that we would get to see the bollywood show but by 1030 the 11 and 13 year old members of the family had had enough of the heat and crowds and decided to pack it in.
i say great job city of melbourne, a truly spectacular event.
it was well controlled, easy to get around and above all extraordinary good fun.
next time we will be strapping on the dancing shoes and getting down and dirty into the wee small hours.
perhaps i'll leave the smalls at home.
Oh I love Melbourne.....you have just reminded me why we must get back there this year. xxx
Posted by: Bron | February 24, 2013 at 04:58 PM
I had seen this advertised and said to Hubby that we should take the kids in to have a look around and then I totally forgot about it until I looked at Sunday's paper. I'm so disappointed we didn't go.....I will have to mark it on the calendar for next year for sure, looks like a great night out!!!
Posted by: Colleen | February 28, 2013 at 10:11 AM